


love me for who i am (and for who i'm gonna be)

by tommohoran223



Series: The Adventures of Peter and Penny Parker [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Peter Parker, Maria Stark's A+ Parenting, Minor Character Death, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Peter and Penny are twins, Precious Peter Parker, Tagging as I go, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Twin Fic, Whump, and they're like five, but not really at the beginning tbh, captain america cant fly, its kinda cute, tony stark is a dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2019-11-08 08:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 42,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17977496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommohoran223/pseuds/tommohoran223
Summary: “What do you think he’s like, Pete?” Penny was curled up next to the big window in the living room, watching the world happen below them. “Do you—do you think he’s nice?”“I hope so,” Peter said. “I mean, he’s a superhero. Aren’t all superheroes nice?”“Yeah but… if he’s so nice, why won’t he come to save us?”When Penny Parker and her twin brother Peter Parker's mother dies, they are separated from all that they know to live with their father, who they hadn't ever met before. The trouble is, Tony Stark doesn't know how to be a dad.





	1. Chapter 1

“C’mon Penny, keep up, we’re gonna be late!”

Penny looked up from the pretty pink flower she had stopped to look at, captivated by the little ladybug crawling along its petals. It was rare to see that kind of flower in the town she lived in; it’s color so vibrant and beautiful. She quickly plucked the plant out of the ground, the ladybug hanging on for dear life as she straightened up and ran to catch up with her brothers.

Luke was waiting for her a few houses down from where she had stopped, looking slightly annoyed, but Mommy told her that older brothers were supposed to get annoyed like that; it was how the world worked. Luke was eight years old, three years older than Penny and Peter, her twin brother—practically a grown up in Penny’s eyes. Peter was holding Luke’s hand, loosely clutching it as he fiddled with his Captain America action figure (Peter must have stuck the toy into his backpack without mommy seeing because they weren’t allowed to bring toys to preschool).

Penny caught up with them, and she could feel herself smiling.

“Look, Lukey, look at the flower I just found!” Penny thrust her hand out to show her older brother, the ladybug surprisingly still holding onto the flower.

“That's a pretty flower, Penny!” Peter stared at the flower in awe. “And look at the bug on it!”

“Yeah, it is pretty,” Luke agreed, “but you realize you just killed it, right? Flowers die after you pluck them.”

Penny frowned, looking back at the flower. Was her brother right? Would the flower lose its color? She looked back up at Luke with sad eyes, and he in turn sighed.

“But it’s fine, Pen. Just take it in for show-and-tell, okay? It’s not a big deal. Now c’mon, we’re gonna be really late now,” Luke stuck out his hand, and Penny took it with her free hand.

Cedar Hill, Pennsylvania was a small town with a population of around 1,000 people, and it was pretty run down in terms of structures and buildings. The buildings were low and falling apart, and the sidewalks were beaten up and worn down to no extent. The people of Cedar Hill were generally poor, and some struggled to keep their businesses open, while others worried about payments on their homes. Most didn’t even own cars, and if they did, it was old and close to breaking down. Penny’s mommy couldn’t afford a lot of clothes for them, so she had pink tennis shoes that were about two sizes too small now, and her clothes were hand-me-downs from a second cousin of hers. Peter was in the same boat, but they never, ever complained about it because they knew how hard mommy worked to make sure they were happy. Luke sometimes had things like new shoes or a fresh new backpack because his Daddy could afford it.

Luke had a different father than Peter and Penny—a man that mommy used to date, but they separated a few months after Luke was born. His dad, Mr. Watson, was really nice, and he and mommy were still great friends. Sometimes after preschool, Luke would take the twins back to his dad’s house, where Mr. Watson’s wife, Mrs. Watson, would give them milk and cookies, and sometimes they would even stay for dinner. Luke lived with his dad and stepmom half the time and lived with the twins and their mom the other half.

Finally, they made it to preschool, and after she and Peter each gave Luke a big hug, they walked into the front doors, ready for a day full of playing and learning shapes and colors. After the day was up, Peter and Penny pulled their tiny backpacks onto their shoulders and raced out of the building to where Luke was waiting for them.

“Luke, is third grade hard?” Peter asked Luke on their way home, his Captain America toy in his hand, flying around saving crime (even though Luke had told him many times, “Captain America doesn’t fly, Pete,” but it went in one ear and out the other).

“Nah, it’s just like second grade, only we’re now learning multiplication and division,” Luke answered, side-eyeing the way Captain America was whooshing around in the air, soaring in the sky looking for the evil Loki.

“Is multi—mulpil—multi—” Penny struggled with the big word.

“Multiplication, Pen?” Luke laughed.

“Yeah, that—is it kinda like adding?” Penny knew how to add and subtract, but she didn’t know multiplication yet. She and Peter both were smarter than the average five-year-old, “because your daddy is a very, very smart man,” their mommy had told them, “and you two are going to be even smarter than him—I just know it.”

“Kinda,” Luke shrugged. “You’ll find out when you’re in the third grade. I hope you get Ms. Smith; she’s so nice and pretty.”

They were almost to their house, a small, one-story two bedroom house, with a lawn that was slightly overgrown and a beat up gray minivan parked out front, meaning mommy was home from work early. Excited to be back, the twins both let go of Luke’s hands and ran towards the house, pulling open the screen door and rushing inside to their room.

Penny shared a small room with Peter, which was painted a pale yellow color and had blue and pink animals painted on the walls. They didn’t have a lot of toys at all because they couldn’t afford them, but Peter had his box of Avengers action figures, and Penny had her dolls, and a couple of stuffed animals. In the middle of the room was a full sized bed that they shared because there wasn’t enough room for twin beds, but they didn’t mind because the bed was big enough to fit them both comfortably. Penny tossed her backpack onto the bed and went back into the living room, Peter following her, and sat on the couch next to Luke. Luke was doing his homework on the coffee table, while Penny and Peter watched whatever kids show they could find on regular TV because they didn't have cable. After about thirty minutes, Penny realized that her mommy hadn’t come out and asked her and her brothers about their day, like she usually did.

Penny slid off the couch and walked into her mommy’s room in search of her mother. She wasn’t in the bedroom, so Penny checked the bathroom and was surprised by her mother sleeping on the bathroom floor.

“Mommy?” Penny frowned, poking her mother’s cheek gently. “Mommy, wake up; we’re home from school.” When her mommy still didn’t wake up, Penny shook her shoulder with both hands, starting to feel a twinge of worry in her tummy. “Mommy, why won’t you wake up?!”

Penny let go of her mother and raced out to the living room, tears threatening to fall.

“Luke, mommy’s on the bathroom floor, and she won’t wake up!” Penny cried out. Luke looked up from his math homework, raising an eyebrow because it was likely that his little sister was confused and hadn’t tried hard enough to wake their mother up. So Luke stood up and pushed past Penny, walking into mommy’s bedroom. Penny and Peter both followed him, standing by the bathroom door and watching as Luke yelled out their mother’s name, sounding more and more panicked after every breath.

“ Penny, Peter, stay here with mom, I’m gonna go get my dad!” Luke pushed through them and sprinted through the house, and Penny could hear the screen door slam shut as Luke left. Peter started to sniffle, and a few tears escaped his eyes, but all Penny could feel was numb. Why wouldn’t mommy wake up? It wasn’t hard; she did it all the time when she had to wake up for school.

  
Five minutes went by slowly, but soon help arrived. Mr. Watson called an ambulance, and the people in the white clothes put their mommy on a stretcher and raced her to the hospital. Mrs. Watson took Penny and her brothers to the hospital in her car, whispering soothing things to them as they all started crying. It was just so scary—what if something bad happened to mommy? What if Penny couldn’t see her anymore? She looked out her window, tears falling down her face. From beside her in the car, Peter grabbed her hand, and he didn’t let go until they got to the hospital.

* * *

 

For what seemed like forever, Penny and Peter sat with Luke and Mr. and Mrs. Watson in the hospital waiting room. Penny hated it there—the walls were too bright and bare, and it smelled funny. Mrs. Watson pushed things like picture books and toys that the waiting room had stocked just for this type of occasion, and helped Penny take her mind off of the endless anxiety she was feeling. It was just starting to get dark outside when Mrs. Watson whispered something to her husband, and when he nodded she stood up and gathered her things.

“ Penny, Peter, Luke, come on, we’re going to go back home and go to bed,” Mrs. Watson said. Penny hadn’t even realized how tired she’d grown to be, and she felt her eyelids start to get heavy. As if he knew this, Mr. Watson picked Penny and Peter up into his arms, carrying them out to Mrs. Watson’s car and strapping them into their seat belts. With a quick peck on the lips, Mrs. Watson got into the car and pulled away onto the street, Mr. Watson going back into the hospital.

They went back to Luke’s dad's house instead of their own, Mrs. Watson shaking them awake and pulling each child inside. Luke disappeared into his room to change and get ready for bed, and Mrs. Watson set up the couch in the living room with sheets and pillows. She put them in Luke’s old pajamas and tucked them in, draping a blanket over their tiny bodies and kissing them each goodnight on the cheek. Mrs. Watson shut off the light, and Penny found it easy to slip into a deep sleep.

The next day, Penny, Peter, and Luke all skipped school. Any other day, Penny would be out of her mind excited to be allowed to stay at home from preschool, but she wasn’t staying at home. It was another day of sitting in the hospital waiting room with her brothers and Mrs. Watson.

Penny was currently reading a book about a naughty kitten who was trying to get her owner's thanksgiving roast dinner—or at least, she was looking at the pictures because she couldn’t quite read yet. In the middle, Luke sat beside her and offered to read it to her. Penny loved it when her older brother read to her because he would always give them time to study the pictures and make funny voices, so she eagerly nodded and handed the book to him, then curling into his side as he read the book aloud. Peter appeared on Luke’s other side, intently listening to Luke read.

Halfway through the story, Penny saw a man in a white lab coat approached Mr. and Mrs. Watson. Mr. Watson stood up and shook his hand. After a moment, the doctor shook his head grimly, and Mr. Watson’s shoulders slumped. Penny turned her attention back to the book, but she couldn’t get the doctor’s face out of her head.

“Are you sure it’s fatal?” she heard Mr. Watson say quietly.

“I’m afraid so, sir. She’ll be lucky if she makes it to tomorrow evening. I’m so sorry.” with that; the doctor left, leaving Mr. Watson to fall back into his chair, his face in his hands.

“But… She—her kids—she can’t leave them…” Mr. Watson whispered, his voice weird.

“What about their father? Do they have one, Derrick?” Mrs. Watson said.

“Yeah but… no one knows who it is. Mary wouldn’t tell anyone,” Mr. Watson sighed. “Dear god, how do we tell them?”

Penny felt with a sinking feeling that they were talking about her and her brothers.

“We just… do…” Mrs. Watson whispered shakily. “We tell the truth. That’s all we can say.”

Minutes turned into hours, and a very tired Penny was curled up on a chair, cuddling into Mrs. Watson’s side as she stroked her hair.

“Mr. Watson, Ms. Parker is awake if you would like to see her,” the nurse said.

“I’ll stay out here, Derrick,” Mrs. Watson said, her voice sad. “You take them.”

“Luke, Penny, Peter…” Mr. Watson stood up, “we’re gonna go say hello to your mom—she’s awake.”

Penny, rubbing her eyes tiredly, was pushed off of the chair gently by Mrs. Watson, and followed Mr. Watson to a room at the end of the hall. Mr. Watson opened the door to see Mary Parker laying in a hospital bed, pale and thin, and it hurt Penny to look at her mother, once so strong, like this.

“Mommy,” Peter was the first to approach her, quickly walking over to the bed and grabbing a fistful of blanket in his little hands. He looked up at Mr. Watson, almost as if he was asking permission to climb up, and Mr. Watson lifted Peter onto the bed next to his mother. He did the same on the other side for Penny, and their mommy wrapped her arms around them both, pulling them close. Luke refused to move any further than the door, a look of horror in his eyes.

“Hi, my loves,” Mommy whispered, her voice rough and weak.

“Mommy, are you okay?” Penny asked, looking up at her mother with wide, scared brown eyes.

“Oh baby… mommy’s sick right now, and I don’t think I’ll be able to be around for much longer,” Mommy’s voice was sad but calm. What did she mean by not being able to be around them anymore? Had Penny done something wrong? Why was mommy leaving? Penny started to cry.

“I’m sorry, darlings… I wish I could stay, I really do,” Mommy whispered. “But… I’ll always be… right here…” Mommy pointed at Penny’s heart, turning around to show Peter the same.  
“I don’t want you to be in here, I want you to stay,” Peter pleaded, tears falling down his face.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. But I can’t… I just can’t…”

“Why, mommy?” Penny’s heart felt as if it was physically breaking into pieces. Maybe it was.

“Just, because, Penny. Now, I need you two to remember that I love you both so, so much,” her mommy said, “and when I’m gone, you two need to take care of each other. It’s a scary world out there, but it’s less scary if you have each other. Okay? Promise?”

“Promise, mommy,” Peter whispered, holding out his finger to pinky swear, and Penny mirrored him.

They stayed like that for several minutes before the nurse gently told them that visiting hours were over. Mommy hugged Penny and Peter, and eventually Luke, but if Penny had known that would be the last time she’d ever embrace her mother, she wouldn’t have ever let go.

But as her mommy always said, “that’s just the way the world works.”

Penny hated how the world worked.

* * *

 

It was 12:03 in the afternoon when Mr. Watson sat Penny and her brothers down and explained to them that their mother had died, and she couldn’t come back ever. Mommy had been sick for a long time, but she hadn’t been able to afford medical care, and that was why she died.

Penny was smart enough to understand what death was. She realized that mommy wasn’t going to come back because she had fallen asleep and wouldn’t ever wake up again. She didn’t, however, understand where mommy was now, but no one really knows what happens when death occurs.

Penny cried for hours in Mrs. Watson’s lap, wishing it was her own mommy’s lap she was crying in, but she understood why she couldn’t. After a while, Penny’s eyes closed, exhausted from all the crying, and sleep started to pull her into its warm grip.

“What do we do now, Derrick?” Mrs. Watson murmured.

“I—I don’t know. But I—Molly, I want to adopt them. I can’t leave them to go into the system,” Mr. Watson said softly.

“I know. I agree,” Mrs. Watson sighed. “I would hate to tear them apart from Luke.”

“I’ll make a call,” Mr. Watson stood up, and Penny heard footsteps retreat into the kitchen. Mrs. Watson continued to stroke her hair back, and Penny was able to let herself fall asleep, dreaming of her mommy.

Two days later was the funeral. Penny was dressed up in a black dress, her hair pulled back into pigtails with black hair ties, while Peter had on a black dress shirt and gray pants. Mrs. Watson held both of their hands as they walked down the aisle of the church towards the body, and Penny sucked in a painful breath of air when she saw her mom in the coffin.

Her mommy didn’t look like she was sleeping—she looked dead, and she didn’t even look the same, her smile seemed almost artificial. That image was seared into Penny’s brain, and for once, Penny didn’t cry. Peter was staring at their mother, his eyes wet, and Luke’s face looked angry. Penny felt too numb to cry. Mrs. Watson tugged the twins away towards the pew, and they sat down to wait for the funeral procession to start.

(Now, Penny did not understand the fact that a man who she had never seen before started preaching about what a wonderful woman Mary Parker was. It seemed fake.  
Not that he was wrong.)

Later, Penny gripped Peter’s hand as they watched their mother’s coffin get lowered into the ground, but she still didn’t cry.

She wondered if her mother would be sad that she wasn’t crying.

  
Then she figured her mother was probably sadder about being dead.

* * *

 

“Derrick, I need to go over Ms. Parker's estate and will.”

Penny was in the living room the next day, home from school again, half paying attention to the kid's TV show that was on in front of her. Peter was sprawled on the couch next to her, and Luke was still in his bedroom. He hadn’t come out at all today.

A meek but tall man had shown up at the Watson’s door, and Mr. Watson has answered it before leading the man into the kitchen.

“As you probably know, Ms. Parker didn’t have much to give, besides a few valuable pieces of jewelry and, most importantly, her kids,” this made Penny perk up and listen. “Of course, Luke is your son, so you and Molly will be gaining full custody of him. However, the twins are a trickier subject, because their father is not around.”

“Yes, Ian, Molly and I decided yesterday that we would like to try to adopt them,” Mr. Watson said. Penny’s heart jumped in her chest. Would Mr. Watson become her new dad?

“Well there’s a problem with that. Ms. Parker stated who the father is in her will, and honestly, I’m kind of skeptical about it, because you know the kind of woman she was. She says their father is Tony Stark,” the lawyer said.

“What? I mean, I’ll be honest, I can believe it, but you can’t seriously suggest that Stark will take in those kids anyways,” Mr. Watson said in disbelief, almost chuckling at the very idea.

“Look, Derrick, legally, we’re required to at least try to contact him and let him know that Peter and Penny are his kids,” the lawyer stated, “however, if he decides he doesn’t want them, I can’t see what would stand in the way of you being able to take them in.”

“I just… Ian, I may not know him personally, but from what I’ve heard and seen about him… there’s absolutely no way he can raise those kids right. His lifestyle is no place for kids as young as they are. Please, Ian, is there no way at all Molly and I can’t just take them in quietly? We really don’t want to split them up from Luke,” Mr. Watson pleaded.

“I’m sorry, Derrick, I really and truly am. And off the record—I agree with you. But the law is the law—there’s nothing I can do to help you,” the lawyer sighed.

“I… I understand. I do.” silence. “So what happens now?”

“Well, I believe the first thing will be a social worker will be assigned to their case. They’ll contact Stark, and if he says he wants custody, we pack up their bags and take them to New York,” the lawyer said.

“God, New York… that’s so far away—we’re never going to see them again,” Mr. Watson said, his voice so quiet Penny almost couldn’t hear it.

“Again, I’m sorry. Just hope he doesn’t want them, I guess. Damn, that sounded awful. Derrick, can they stay with you until we get everything sorted out?”

“What—oh, yes, of course. They’re always welcome in this house. Always.”

“Well then, good. Now, I need to go over a few more valuables she had—she split them up between the three kids.”

Peter stirred from beside Penny on the couch.

“Pen? Are we gonna have a dad?” Peter wondered quietly, so it was apparent he had been listening in to the conversation too.

“I dunno,” Penny shrugged. “I just dunno.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Can we stay here?” Peter started to cry, rubbing his eyes with his fists. “I don’t wanna go to New York.”
> 
> “No, honey, you have to go to New York. That’s where your daddy lives,” Ms. Alaina sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowie two chapters in one day? yeah i have them just sitting around so why not tbh

Two days later, Penny and Peter met their social worker. Ms. Alaina was a very nice young woman with kind eyes, and Penny couldn’t help but trust her. She sat on the floor in front of them criss-cross applesauce, Penny and Peter mirroring her.

“Now, the two of you are gonna go live with your daddy in New York, okay?” Ms. Alaina smiled kindly at them. It turned out, their daddy did want them, and although Penny was sad to leave the Watson’s, it warmed her heart to know he wanted her. Penny didn’t even know where New York was, and she voiced this to Ms. Alaina. Ms. Alaina chuckled and explained to her that New York was in the state right next to Pennsylvania.

“Is it far away?” Peter asked, and Penny began to worry that she would never see her friends again, that she might never see Luke again.

“It’s about three hours from Cedar Hill,” Ms. Alaina answered, holding up three fingers to help them visualize it. Penny wanted to roll her eyes; she didn’t need someone to hold up fingers; she was smart enough to know how many three was. “So it’s… it’s kinda far.”

“Is Luke coming with us?” Penny asked quietly, her tummy flip-flopping over and over again.

“No, sweetheart, Luke has to stay here with his daddy,” Ms. Alaina explained softly. “But you may be able to visit during the summer if your father allows it.”

“Can we stay here?” Peter started to cry, rubbing his eyes with his fists. “I don’t wanna go to New York.”

“No, honey, you have to go to New York. That’s where your daddy lives,” Ms. Alaina sighed.

That’s how Penny and Peter were led into their old room with Ms. Alaina and Mr. Watson and told to pack whatever could fit into their backpacks. Penny crouched down and put her dolls into her bag, as well as the pink stuffed rabbit mommy had given her for her third birthday. Luke shoved all of his Avengers action figures into his backpack, and the blue stuffed rabbit he had gotten on their birthday from mommy as well. Ms. Alaina put the few clothes and shoes that they had into a small duffle bag, as well as a picture frame of Penny, Peter, Mommy, and Luke together. Penny started to cry when she saw it, burying her head into Ms. Alaina’s leg.

They went back into the living room, taking one last look at the now empty house. On the couch, Luke was angrily crying as Mrs. Watson rubbed his back.

“It’s not fair!” Luke was shaking, and his entire face was red. “They can’t go! They—they just can’t!”

“They have to, honey, I know it’s sad, I know. But hey—how about you write down our address on a piece of paper; that way they can write to you from New York?” Mrs. Watson suggested.

“Peter’s handwriting sucks,” Luke grumbled, but he still disappeared into the kitchen, coming back out with a piece of paper with his address on it. He gave it to Ms. Alaina, who put into their duffle bag.

“Penny, Peter, can you hug Luke goodbye?” Ms. Alaina urged them. Immediately, Peter ran to Luke and all but tackled him into a hug, Penny joining only seconds later.

“I’m gonna miss you two slowin’ me down on the way to school, and Pete, I’m gonna miss your Captain America figure flying through the air, fighting all the ant piles along the sidewalk,” Luke mumbled.

“I’m gonna miss you lyin’ about Captain America’s ability to fly,” Peter huffed, but a grin was on his face.

“I love you, Luke,” Penny whispered.

“I love you too, Pen. Pete,” Luke whispered back. “This isn’t the last time I’ll ever see you. I’m gonna see you guys soon if I have anything to say about it.”

Ms. Alaina nudged the twins toward the door, and with one last ruffle on the head from Mr. Watson, and a kiss on the cheek and a hug from Mrs. Watson, they loaded into Ms. Alaina’s car and headed to New York where their daddy lived.

* * *

It felt like forever that Penny was in Ms. Alaina’s car, and yet that wasn’t long enough. The butterflies in her tummy wouldn’t go away, and her actual stomach was flip-flopping around. Penny didn’t know anything about her new daddy, other than his name, because her mommy had never said much about him. When she whispered the question to Ms. Alaina from the backseat, asking what their father was like, Ms. Alaina met her eyes through the rear view mirror, and for a split-second, it looked as if Ms. Alaina was grimacing.

Ms. Alaina told them that their father was a brilliant man who had a lot of money. She told them that their daddy lived in a big tower, and flew around while fighting bad guys.

“Is our daddy Captain America?” Peter’s face lit up in excitement, looking down at his action figure in his hands. “See Penny; I told you guys Captain America could fly!”

“No honey, your father is Iron Man,” Ms. Alaina chuckled.

“Who?” Peter’s face was scrunched up in confusion.

“Iron Man has the gold and red metal suit…” Ms. Alaina trailed off, her eyes trained on the road as she drove.

“I don’t have that doll,” Peter frowned. “Are you sure my dad isn’t Captain America?”

“Yes, sweetheart, I’m sure,” Ms. Alaina gave a small smile. They drove in silence for a few minutes before Peter nudged Penny from the other side of the car.

“Hey, Penny, do ya wanna play Avengers?” Peter held out his box of action figures.

“Sure, but I wanna be Black Widow,” Penny agreed.

“ Penny, I don’t want Black Widow,” Peter told her, as he always did when they played. “I want Captain America and the Hulk.”

Penny reached into the box and grabbed the Black Widow. The Black Widow was Penny's favorite avenger; not only because the Black Widow was a girl like herself, but because the assassin was so awesome. Peter grabbed the Loki doll and started flying him around, telling Penny that they were on a mission to stop Loki and save the world. They played for a while until Ms. Alaina told them to put away their toys because they were almost to daddy’s house.

Penny looked out the window in awe because the buildings were just so huge. There were so many restaurants and shopping places, and there were so many people briskly walking either on the sidewalk or in the middle of the road, depending on how late they were for work. Ms. Alaina pulled up to the most prominent building of all, a massive tower that stood up tall and proud in the sky. The car pulled up to a gated driveway, and after telling the guard what she was there for, they let her in the gates, and she pulled up next to a massive garage with tons and tons of cars.

“We’re here, darlings,” Ms. Alaina said, putting the car in park and getting out. She helped Peter out of the car, Penny unbuckling her seat belt like a big girl and scooting out of Peter’s door. Ms. Alaina handed Penny her little pink backpack with a kitten on the front and gave Peter his Captain America backpack.

A large man approached them, dressed in a suit and tie, and Penny wondered if that was her new dad. An older woman came up behind him, looking as if she’d been in the sun for way too long.

“Happy Hogan,” the man introduced himself to Ms. Alaina.

“Alaina Downing,” Ms. Alaina shook the man’s hand, before stepping back to look at Penny and Peter. Suddenly nervous again, Penny grabbed onto Ms. Alaina’s leg, hiding behind it. “This is Peter Parker.” Ms. Alaina gestured to Peter, who was hanging onto her hand for dear life, “and this is Penny Parker,” Ms. Alaina stepped out of the way, trying to get Penny out from behind her leg. She succeeded for a moment before Penny ran right behind her again.

“They’re a little shy,” Ms. Alaina explained to the man, Happy Hogan? What kind of name was that? “They’ve had a stressful week.”

“I’ll bet,” Happy Hogan agreed, but his voice wasn’t kind. It wasn’t mean either, just neutral. Penny didn’t like him. “Peter, Penny, this is Ms. Edwards. She’s going to be taking care of you for now on.” Happy was referring to the old lady next to her. Where was her new daddy? When would she meet him?

“Where is Mr. Stark?” Ms. Alaina voiced her questions.

“Mr. Stark is busy right now,” Happy Hogan explained. Ms. Alaina didn’t seem to like this, and she frowned. She looked down at Penny and Peter, kneeling, so she was looking at them both in the eye.

“Penny, Peter, I put my telephone number in your duffle bag with Luke’s address. If you need anything at all, call me, okay?” Ms. Alaina tucked a piece of brown hair behind Penny’s ear. “I’ll always be on your side, okay? Always.”

“Don’t go, Ms. Alaina,” tears started to well up in Peter’s eyes, and Penny could feel her own eyes burning.

“Yeah, please take us back home,” Penny begged, a single tear falling down her cheek.

“Honey, this is your home,” Ms. Alaina sighed, but she looked as if maybe she didn’t believe that was true. “You’ll learn to love it, I bet.”

“What if we don’t?” Penny sniffled.

“That’s when you call me, and we’ll figure something out,” Ms. Alaina promised. “You’ll always have a home with Luke and his parents. Now I have to go, honey, but you two will be just fine here.”

It took a while for Ms. Alaina to get back into her car because Penny and Peter wouldn’t stop crying. Suddenly, a cold, wrinkly hand grabbed each of their harms rather tightly, pulling them back away from Ms. Alaina, and Penny looked up to see Ms. Edwards, her face stern. Ms. Alaina got into her car, not before giving them each a quick kiss on the hair, and drove away, leaving Penny and Peter all alone. Penny couldn’t help but cry, but Ms. Edwards strengthened her grip on Penny’s arm.

“Stop crying, you’re not a baby, Penelope,” Ms. Edwards snapped, “Same goes for you, Peter.”

Happy Hogan had disappeared with their duffle bag, so they were alone with Ms. Edwards. When Penny and Peter stopped crying, Ms. Edwards let go of their arms, walking off.

“Come along, children, we’re going to go to your floor. Don’t touch anything, and try to keep up,” Ms. Edwards ordered. Penny and Peter obeyed, and Ms. Edwards led them through the lobby of the tower, going rather fast for such an old woman. As they walked, Penny couldn’t believe how big the lobby was—filled with fancy furniture, chandeliers, and art or all kinds. They reached an elevator on the opposite end of the lobby and got in.

“JARVIS, take us to floor 72,” Ms. Edwards said.

“Right away, Ms. Edwards,” the voice came from nowhere, leading Penny to look all around, but she couldn’t find who said that. However, she was too terrified of Ms. Edwards to ask, so she kept her mouth closed as they rose up into the tower. The elevator dinged and opened up to a pair of glass doors. Ms. Edwards took them through the doors, revealing a large room with couches, a TV, and so many toys of all different types—dollhouses, action figure playsets, and more toys than Penny had ever seen in her life. Off of the living room was a kitchen with a table and chairs in it, and on the other side of the living room there was a hallway that led somewhere, Penny didn’t know where exactly.

Peter’s eyes were practically bulging out of his head as he looked around, but he didn’t move an inch, and Penny didn’t dare to, either. Surely this wasn’t for Penny and Peter. There was no way; it must be for some other kids who lived in the tower.

“Come, children, sit on the couch, but don’t mess up the pillows,” Ms. Edwards commanded, sitting in an armchair next to the couch. Penny and Peter clambered onto the pretty, white sofa, the fabric cushioning so soft that Penny could stay on that couch forever.

“Now, there are rules you must follow while staying here and breaking any of the rules will lead to punishment, so I suggest you remember the rules and follow them,” Ms. Edwards said, and the coldness in the old lady’s voice made Penny shiver.

There were a lot of rules. Keep your voices down, don’t make a mess if you can help it, eat all of your dinners, no complaining. The biggest one of all, however, was to never leave through the glass doors without Ms. Edwards, until it was time for them to go to school, which wouldn’t be for another year.

“Do you understand, children?” Ms. Edwards looked at them sharply.

“Yes, ma’am,” Penny and Peter both said at the same time. Penny looked down at her shoes. She didn’t like it here—she wanted to go home to Mr. Watson.

“Good. Now, I’m going to make dinner. You two go find your room and neatly put your stuff away,” Ms. Edwards ordered. Penny and Peter nodded, and slid off of the couch, walking down the dark hallway towards the bedrooms, according to Ms. Edwards directions.

There were two bedrooms at the end of the hallway, facing each other. The doors were open just a little, and Penny peered into one to see a huge room, the walls painted bright pink. There was a huge king-size bed in the middle of the room, and there was a desk with all sorts of office supplies pushed against a wall. There was a big bathroom connected to the room, with both a shower and a bathtub, and off of that was a big closet, which was empty save for a few storage containers.

Running back out, Penny set her backpack down against the wall and rushed out into the hallway and into the other room, where Peter was gawking at his room, painted blue.

“The rooms are so big,” Penny stated. Peter turned to look at her; a star-struck look in his eyes.

“I know, right?” but he didn’t sound happy, and neither was Penny. “But I don’t like it. I wanna go home, Penny.”

“Me too, Peter,” Penny whispered.

“Tonight, let’s call Ms. Alaina to tell her to come to get us,” Peter suggested, but Penny shook her head.

“Ms. Edwards said we’re not allowed to touch the phone,” Penny recalled. Peter’s face fell, and he looked crushed.

“Peter, Penelope, dinner!” Ms. Edwards called out. Penny wanted to cry; she wished Ms. Edwards wouldn’t call her Penelope—that’s what she was called when she was in trouble.

“C’mon, Penny,” Peter held out his hand, and Penny grabbed it. They walked down the vast, dark hallway together, hand in hand, towards the kitchen.

Meatloaf was dinner, and it tasted dry and cold, along with the broccoli on their plates. But Penny remembered the rule about not complaining, so she forced her dinner down even though it was very gross. While Ms. Edwards wasn’t looking, Penny saw Peter look like he was gagging—maybe he was. God knows Penny was.

After dinner, they each got a small bowl of vanilla bean ice cream.

“Now children, just as being bad will get you punishments, being good can get you rewards,” Ms. Edwards explained to them while Penny took a bite of the sweet ice cream. They didn’t get ice cream a lot back at home; only when they went to the Watson’s house.

Penny felt a pang of sadness when she thought of Luke. Her older brother would not have eaten the gross meatloaf without a fight.

Ms. Edwards told them to get ready for bed and Penny and Peter obeyed, disappearing into their respective rooms to get their pajamas on and to brush their teeth. Penny only had two sets of pajamas, both pairs worn down from excessive use. Ms. Edwards came into her room, turned off the light, and told her to get into bed, warning her that if she got out of bed once before tomorrow morning, the robot in the ceiling would tell her, and she would be in big trouble. Penny climbed into the huge, cold bed, and Ms. Edwards left and closed the door.

Penny remembered the way her mommy used to tuck her and Peter into bed. She would always read them a bedtime story (it was the same one over and over again because they could only afford a couple of books), and then she would pull the covers up around their bodies, laying a kiss on each of their foreheads before moving towards the door.

“Peter, Penny—I love you,” her mother would always say.

“Love you too,” Penny and Peter would always sleepily mumble back.

Now, Penny stared up at the very high, dark ceiling. Tonight was her first time sleeping in a bed without Peter. She hated it.

“I love you, mommy,” Penny whispered up at the ceiling. No response.

Penny curled up in her covers and cried herself to sleep, feeling so alone for the first time in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going somewhere i promise


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hours turned into days, and Penny started to wonder if Peter and she had done something wrong to end up here. Maybe this was a punishment for allowing her mother to die so soon. Penny also wondered where her daddy was, and why she hadn’t met him yet.
> 
> "Maybe he’s too busy being Iron Man,” Peter suggested when Penny voiced the latter thought out loud to her brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there's child abuse in this chapter. please don't read if this could be potentially triggering to you. thou hath been warned

Life continued with Penny and Peter living with Ms. Edwards. They would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and although the food was usually cold and gross, Penny never found herself going hungry as they would back at home. At least, not when they were good.

The second day of living at the tower, Penny had been playing with her dolls, making a bit of a mess as she searched through a basket of doll clothes, looking for a pair of shoes to put on her doll. She heard Ms. Edwards clear her throat, and she looked up to see the old woman standing over her, arms crossed and looking angry.

“Penelope, you know you’re not supposed to make messes,” Ms. Edwards scolded her, and Penny felt shame wash over her. She’d only been here for less than 24 hours, and she’d already broken one of the rules.

“I-I’m sorry, I’ll c-clean it up right now,” Penny stammered.

“No, that’s okay,” Ms. Edwards started, and Penny was confused until the woman continued, “you can clean it up during lunch time instead of eating.” Ms. Edwards walked away, disappearing into the kitchen, and Penny’s eyes welled up with tears. She quickly cleaned up the mess, putting all the dolls away.

Peter looked upset when Ms. Edwards called only him into the kitchen for lunch, but Penny gave him a look that begged him not to argue. He complied, looking sad for her, and Penny couldn’t help but feel sorry for herself.

That’s what you get when you break the rules, she told herself. She wouldn’t make another mess again; she promised herself that.

Later that same day, Peter got in trouble too for being too loud while playing with his action figures and Ms. Edwards took away his dinner privileges. On top of that, she confiscated the toys, stating that it was inappropriate to play with superhero “dolls” while the real superheroes work hard to protect us. Peter started to cry when Ms. Edwards ripped his Captain America toy out of his small hands, only for her to hit him upside the head for crying, knocking him down onto the floor. Ms. Edwards went to put the toys away, leaving a very sad, shocked Peter sitting in the middle of the living room, trying to hold back his tears the best he could.

* * *

  
Hours turned into days, and Penny started to wonder if Peter and she had done something wrong to end up here. Maybe this was a punishment for allowing her mother to die so soon. Penny also wondered where her daddy was, and why she hadn’t met him yet.

“Maybe he’s too busy being Iron Man,” Peter suggested when Penny voiced the latter thought out loud to her brother. Ms. Edwards was in the kitchen making dinner because they’d both been good today, but they made sure to keep their voices down because they weren’t supposed to ask about their dad.

“What do you think he’s like, Pete?” Penny was curled up next to the big window in the living room, watching the world happen below them. “Do you—do you think he’s nice?”

“I hope so,” Peter said. “I mean, he’s a superhero. Aren’t all superheroes nice?” his face fell a little, probably thinking about his confiscated action figures.

“Yeah but… if he’s so nice, why won’t he come to save us?” Penny whispered.

“Maybe Captain America will fly up to the window and take us back home to Luke and Mr. Watson,” Peter grinned at the thought.

“Captain America can’t fly, dummy,” Penny reminded Peter. “And I don’t think he would anyway, because he doesn’t know us. How would he know we’re even here?”

“Because the good guys always win,” Peter told her, a serious look on his face. “Always.”

After dinner, Ms. Edwards allowed them 30 minutes of TV before bedtime. While watching Paw Patrol with the volume down very low, Penny heard Ms. Edwards talking to someone behind the couch. She peered around the house to look and saw a woman with light blonde hair having a conversation with Ms. Edwards. The woman looked over at the couch and Penny made eye contact with her, and her expression wasn’t mean like Ms. Edwards’. The woman gave a small smile, and Penny smiled back. Then, the woman left, leaving Ms. Edwards to shut off the TV and send the twins to bed.

“Who was that, Ms. Edwards?” Penny asked, her voice hardly loud enough to hear while climbing into her bed.

“Don’t ask questions, Penelope,” Ms. Edwards snapped. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Penny whispered as Ms. Edwards shut her door, a few tears slipping out of her eyes. Since when did she become so sensitive?

While Ms. Edwards was making lunch the next day, Peter was walking down the hallway when he spotted a closet. He opened it to see his Avenger’s action figures on a shelf. Unable to reach the ledge, Peter grabbed a chair with wheels from his room and shoved it over to the closet, climbing on top of it and stretching up to be able to reach it.

Penny was in the living room, quietly coloring at her little pink table when she heard a loud crash and a bang. Crying followed, and Ms. Edwards rushed out to see what happened.

“Peter Benjamin Parker!” Ms. Edwards screeched, and Penny tensed up with fear for her brother. “What are you doing?”

Peter didn’t answer, so Ms. Edwards dragged him to the couch, the Captain America figure still in his hand. He had a cut on his forehead, the blood starting to trickle down his face.

“Stay here,” Ms. Edwards growled, before disappearing into the kitchen.

“Peter…” Penny whispered fearfully. Peter’s face was pale.

It all happened surprisingly quickly, despite the woman’s age. Ms. Edwards came back out with a wooden spoon, grabbed Peter, flipped him over her knee and started to hit him with the spoon. Peter screamed out, which only made Ms. Edwards hit harder. She was hitting any part of him besides his head, and it was so loud that Penny wondered if they were the only ones in the tower, because inevitably someone would’ve heard by now.

Penny jumped up, unable to watch that evil old woman hurt her brother. Powered by fear, Penny ran over and tried to grab the spoon out of Ms. Edwards’ hand, which only led to Ms. Edwards backhanding her across the face, sending her flying across the living room, landing with a thud. Thankfully, Ms. Edwards let go of Peter, but she then started approaching Penny, spoon raised high in the air.

“Penny!” Peter cried out.

“Girl, I am sick of your attitude,” Ms. Edwards hissed, and Penny squeezed her eyes shut, ready for impact when a hand grabbed her and pulled her out of the way. Peter let go of her hand and took off running towards the glass doors of the living room, and Penny got to her feet and ran right on his heels. Peter yanked on the glass door as hard as he could, and the twins slipped out. Ms. Edwards was storming up to the door, her expression made up of pure anger, and Peter pushed against the doors while Penny pressed the elevator button.

“Keep the doors shut!” Penny cried.

“I am!” Peter yelled, shoving his entire body against the doors as Ms. Edwards pushed, sending out various warnings and threats. The elevator doors opened with a ding and Penny rushed inside, Peter quickly letting go of the doors and getting into the elevator too.

“What floor?” Penny asked, her heart beating so fast in her chest.

“It doesn’t matter,” Peter said and pushed a random button. “Just a floor that isn’t this one.”

The doors started to slide close, and to their surprise, the doors were still being held shut, even though Ms. Edwards was trying her hardest to open them. The doors shut completely, and the elevator started to descend. Penny slid down onto the ground, her legs shaky.

“Are you okay, Peter?” Penny whispered.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Peter nodded. “You?”

“Yes,” Penny said. They rode the rest of the way in silence until the elevator stopped and opened up. The floor they got off at had several seating areas, as well as a kitchen and a bar with barstools. It was utterly void of humans, even when Penny and Peter started walking through it. Where was everyone?

The elevator dinged again, and Penny looked at Peter, his huge, fearful brown eyes matching her own because it was probably Ms. Edwards coming to finish what she started. They took off running once they heard voices, trying to go as fast as they could.

“Hey!” They heard a female voice yell, but Penny didn’t dare slow down to see who yelled. She heard footsteps chasing after them, and realizing they couldn’t outrun them, Penny pulled Peter into a closet, slamming the door shut. Penny curled up on the floor against the wall, Peter doing the same next to her, and Penny started to cry because she was just so scared. She tried to keep her cries as quiet as possible, burying her face into Peter’s shoulder. Peter was shaking as well, sniffles coming from him as well.

The footsteps stopped right in front of the closet Penny, and Peter was hiding in. The doorknob turned, and the door opened, revealing a woman with blonde hair and kind blue eyes. Penny recognized her as the woman who had been talking to Ms. Edwards last night. Penny panicked as she realized this lady would take her back to Ms. Edwards, and she started to cry harder, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“Oh, honey, what’s wrong?” The woman’s voice was gentle, and she reached her hand out to touch them only for Penny to flinch. “Why are you crying?”

Neither twin said anything, so the lady continued.

“Can you come out of the closet? We can’t help you from inside there,” the lady said softly, and it hit Penny how much she had craved an adult that she trusted. The lady’s arms stretched towards them, and even though she knew those arms would take her back to Ms. Edwards, she couldn’t help but grab the lady’s hand, slowly stumbling out like a baby deer. She fell into the woman’s lap, continuing to cry, and Penny was surprised when the woman wrapped her arms around her, stroking her hair and shushing her gently.

Peter came out of the closet, and the lady let him sit in her lap too, and she started rocking them both while they sobbed.

“What in the world are they crying about?” Penny realized there was a man there too, and she peered through the lady’s arm to look at him. He wore a military outfit with multiple badges, but he seemed as kind as the lady, sitting down onto a couch nearby.

“I have no idea,” the lady said, her voice full of concern.

“I’m sorry,” Penny whispered to her, knowing she would be in a lot of trouble for crying.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, honey,” the lady said. “My name is Pepper—what’s your names?”

“I’m Peter,” Peter introduced himself quietly, his sobs starting to slow down. “That’s my sister, Penny.”

“Oh my…” Miss. Pepper breathed in.

“Are they—” the man on the couch started.

“Yes, I think so,” Miss. Pepper answered, but Penny had no clue what they were talking about. “Peter, Penny, what’s the matter? Where’s Ms. Edwards?”

At Ms. Edwards’ name, Penny flinched and shrunk down into Miss. Pepper’s arms, trying to hide the best she could.

“We’re in big trouble,” Peter admitted shamefully.

“Why are you in trouble?” Miss. Pepper asked, wiping the tears off and brushing the hair out of Peter’s face.

“We ran away from her because she was really mad at us,” Peter explained.

“I wanna go home,” Penny told Miss. Pepper, more tears falling down her face. Miss. Pepper looked down at her and touched a gentle hand to Penny’s cheek.

“How did that happen?” Miss. Pepper frowned, touching the tender skin where Ms. Edwards had hit her. Penny just shrugged, upset that the woman was ignoring her request.

“Can we please go home?” Penny begged her.

“Honey, this is your home,” Miss. Pepper said, confused.

“No, it’s not,” Penny shook her head. “Home is with Luke and his mommy and daddy in Cedar Hill.”

“Oh,” Miss. Pepper nodded in understanding.

“Miss. Pepper, can you please call Ms. Alaina and tell her to come to take us home?” Peter asked, batting his long eyelashes. “Please?” Miss. Pepper opened her mouth to say something, but before she could the elevator door dinged and Ms. Edwards stepped out, her hair frazzled but thankfully spoonless.

“Penny, Peter there you are,” Ms. Edwards sighed in relief. “Why did you two run off like that?” the sweetness in her voice was fake and artificial, and Penny hated it.

“I think they thought they were in trouble,” Miss. Pepper chuckled.

“Oh my dears, why would you think that?” Ms. Edwards asked kindly. “Come along; I’m sure Miss. Potts is a busy woman.”

Miss. Pepper gently nudged Penny and Peter out of her lap, but while Peter got up, Penny clung onto her for dear life.

“Come on, Penelope,” Ms. Edwards held out her hand, gesturing for her to take it, and maybe her tone was kind, but Penny could hear a warning behind it. Miss. Pepper nudged her out one last time, and this time Penny let go, taking Ms. Edwards’ hand. “Come along children; let’s go eat lunch, shall we?”

As Ms. Edwards led them over to the elevator, Penny looked back at Miss. Pepper and the other man, fear coursing through her entire body. She wanted to run but Ms. Edwards’ grip was too tight, and as the elevator doors shut Penny thought she saw Miss. Pepper frown. Then they shut, and they were alone once more.

* * *

 

“Tony, we need to talk.”

Tony Stark had been working in his lab like he always did, making improvements to Stark tech and his Iron Man suits. His rock music had been pumping at a medium volume, and like always Tony was deep in concentration, so he didn’t hear Pepper approach his lab and as a result, almost jumped out of his skin.

He whipped around to see Pepper and Rhodey standing at the entrance of his lab, the latter sitting on a table, his arms crossed against his chest.

“I hate when you do that,” Tony grumbled, a hand on his heart. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

He turned back around, going back to tinkering with his suit.

“I’m listening,” he said to Pepper.

“We just met your kids, Tony,” Pepper said, somewhat gently. Tony dropped the tool that was in his hand, the tool clattering onto the ground, but he made no move to pick it back up.

“Oh,” Tony’s mouth went dry, and he turned around to look at Pepper. “What—how are—I—” he struggled to find words to say, but eventually came up empty, and could only hope that Pepper could somehow understand what he was trying to say.

It had been two weeks since Tony had gotten the call from Alaina Downing, telling him that Mary Parker had died and they believed he was the father of her five-year-old twins. A paternity test was taken that same day, and it turned out that the assumptions were correct. Miss. Downing had asked if he wanted custody of them and he had agreed, not thinking through what that meant, only knowing that he didn’t want the kids to be placed into the foster system. He hadn’t ever met the kids, entrusting his staff to take care of them, and he didn’t even know their names.

“They’re such beautiful kids,” Pepper told him. “They look a lot like you; they have your hair color and your eyes…”

“That—that’s nice…” Tony was at a loss for words, and Pepper could see this. She could see everything.

“Tony, why haven’t you met them yet?” Rhodey asked him where he was sitting. “They’ve been here a week now, and they haven’t met their dad.”

“I just… can’t,” Tony said defensively, running a hand through his hair.

“Why?”

“Because—because I—I don’t want to ruin their lives,” Tony admitted, picking up his tool and going back to work on his repairs. “I can’t do that to them.”

“Tony, how would you ruin their lives?” Pepper came up closer to him, turning his head, so he was looking straight into her eyes.

“Pepper I—look, growing up, I didn’t have that great of a father figure. That’s not much of a secret these days,” Tony sighed. “And I know that I’m probably going to be just like him. I can’t do to those kids—I can’t do to them what Howard did to me.”

“Tony…” Pepper pulled him into her arms, resting her head against his shoulder. “Or maybe you’ll be the exact opposite of Howard; or who knows, maybe you’re right, but you’ll never know until you try.”

“By not being around for them ever, that could be ruining their lives too,” Rhodey added. “But if you meet them at least they’ll know you tried.”

Tony pulled away from Pepper and didn’t say anything for a second, grabbing a towel and wiping the grease off of his hands. Part of him didn’t believe Rhodey. If Tony never met them, they would never know what it was like to have a father who didn’t care about them, or who only looked at him like he was another one of his technology experiments gone slightly right. He just couldn’t let that happen.

“So, what are they like?” Tony dared to ask, glancing up at Pepper. “You say they look just like me—do they have arc reactors in their chests?”

“They seem sweet, Tony,” Pepper assured him, raising her eyebrows in a way that clearly said ‘cut the bullshit.’ “Although we didn’t get to have a conversation because the poor things were crying the entire time.”

Tony’s heart jumped at Pepper’s last sentence. Crying? Then he shook that off because he knew that kids cried all the time; it was kind of their thing. He remembered the one time they had all gone to Clint’s house in the country to hide out, and while he was there the kiddo’s cried all the damn time. Over a scraped knee, a sibling stealing a toy, not getting dessert after not eating their vegetables.

“They were asking me to call their social worker and have her take them back to Cedar Hill where they lived before. They have family there. If you don’t want anything to do with them, you should at least give custody back to that family so they can be happy,” Pepper continued. “But before you do, you should at least try to get to know them.”

“Okay. Uh… I’ll stop by today and take a look at them,” Tony promised, and he felt like he was talking about a car in need of fixing. But kids weren’t cars—you couldn’t fix kids with all the engineering knowledge in the world; he knew that much about kids.

“Oh and, Tony?” Pepper was starting to leave the lab when she turned around, a troubled look on her face. “How well do you know their nanny? Ms. Edwards?”

“Huh? Not very well. I didn’t hire her; one of my assistants did,” Tony answered honestly. “Why?”

Pepper pursed her lips, thinking to herself for a split second.

“You know what? Nevermind, I’m sure she’s great,” Pepper waved whatever she had been thinking off. “Just go see them soon, okay honey?”

It was now hours later, but Tony had hardly gotten any work done. Pepper and Rhodey had long since left his lab, but all he could think about was his kids. Were they smart like him? What were their names? Did they look like Mary at all? The clock kept ticking until he couldn’t stand all of the questions racing through his head, and he stood up and set everything he was working on down onto a table. He exited the lab, needing to lay eyes on them and know for sure they existed.

God, he hoped Pepper was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry *ducks under chair* but i have to make them suffer
> 
> it'll get better though. i think.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penny froze in her place, and for a second she didn’t know whether or not to believe this strange man who claimed to be their father. After the last few days, Penny had forgotten that she even had a dad here, what with all the commotion with Ms. Edwards and such. There was a silence for a couple of minutes as Penny and Peter both stared at him, and he started to fidget under their gazes.
> 
> “Are you Iron Man? Ms. Alaina said our dad is Iron Man,” Peter broke the silence, a small smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there's verbal and physical child abuse in this chapter. Read at your discretion.

Ms. Edwards was strangely nice after taking them back to their floor. She fixed up Peter’s cut on his head, gave him back his Avengers figures, and even gave them both a popsicle—before dinner! Penny still didn’t trust her—how could she after what had happened this morning? But she was able to relax a little, sitting down at her table to finish coloring her picture of a kitten while Peter played with his action figures.

She heard the glass doors open again, which was weird because Ms. Edwards was taking a nap back in her quarters of the floor. Penny looked up from her coloring to see a tall unfamiliar man enter the room, dressed in a pair of stained jeans and a t-shirt. His hair was brown like hers and Pete’s, and he had a neatly trimmed goatee. According to the expression on his face, the man was uncomfortable, and he fiddled with his fingers as he sat down on one of the couches in the living room. His eyes darted back and forth from Peter to Penny, as if he couldn’t figure out which twin to settle on. Peter had stopped playing and was staring at this strange man, same as Penny was.

“Um, hi,” the man greeted them, raising a hand and waving at them. Penny waved back, while Peter only continued to stare. “What’s your names?”

“I’m Penny,” Penny’s voice was no louder than a whisper, not wanting to make anyone else hit her or her brother with a wooden spoon today.

“My name’s Peter,” Peter copied her.

“That’s—those are nice names,” the man nodded, looking back towards the door. “Uh, listen, I’m sorry that I haven’t come by before but… I was just—busy, and um well to beat around the bush—I’m your dad.”

Penny froze in her place, and for a second she didn’t know whether or not to believe this strange man who claimed to be their father. After the last few days, Penny had forgotten that she even had a dad here, what with all the commotion with Ms. Edwards and such. There was a silence for a couple of minutes as Penny and Peter both stared at him, and he started to fidget under their gazes.

“Are you Iron Man? Ms. Alaina said our dad is Iron Man,” Peter broke the silence, a small smile on his face. Their dad chuckled.

“Yeah, kiddo, I’m Iron Man,” he said. “Maybe one day I can show you guys the suit.”

“Yes!” Peter cried out with happiness, clutching his Captain America action figure in his hand.

“Hey, nice action figure. Why is it Capsicle?” their daddy pointed to the figure.

“Huh?” Peter’s face scrunched up in confusion. “I have all of the Avengers action figures; mommy gave them to me for my fifth birthday.”

Peter grabbed the box and set it on his daddy’s lap, and the man looked through it.

“Very cool, little man,” their daddy praised, leaving Peter to beam with pride. “Hey, where’s Iron Man?”

“I dunno, mommy never gave me an Iron Man. Maybe she forgot,” Peter shrugged. “My favorite is Captain America though.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she just forgot,” their daddy agreed, but his tone seemed sad.

Peter grabbed the box back, rummaging around until he found the Black Widow doll. He put it in front of Penny, a big grin on his face.

“Penny let’s play Avengers!” Peter said, but Penny looked towards Ms. Edwards’ room and knew she couldn’t risk it. What if they were too loud or they made too big of a mess, and Ms. Edwards hit them again?

“No, Peter,” Penny shook her head. “Put them away.” with that, she neatly put her crayons back into the container, a deflated Peter putting the figures back into the box. She was about to close her coloring book when her daddy sat at her little pink table, looking large and out of place compared to it.

“That’s some good coloring, kiddo,” her daddy complimented her.

“Thank you, sir,” Penny gave a small smile. She looked up at her dad, but her smile fell when she saw him frowning.

“You don’t have to call me ‘sir,’ kid,” he said. “That’s what they called my dad.”

“Sorry,” Penny sheepishly looked down at the table.

“Hey, it’s okay, nothing to be sorry for,” her daddy put out a shaky hand and touched her face, making Penny flinch. He lifted her face to look at him, and he frowned when he saw the big hand shaped bruise she had gotten earlier from Ms. Edwards. “How did that happen?”

“I fell,” Penny lied, not wanting to explain what she had done to get in trouble and receive the bruise. Her dad seemed to like her, and she didn’t want to ruin it by making him mad. He looked like he didn’t believe it, but he let it go to Penny’s relief.

Their daddy stood up, looking back at Peter.

“So hey guys, I have to go out of town tomorrow for a shareholders meeting—you probably don’t know what that is—and I’ll be away for three days,” their daddy said to them. He held up three fingers as if Penny and Peter didn't know how many three was. What was with all the adults who thought they were stupid? “but when I get back maybe we could spend the day together, and I can show you all my Iron Man stuff. Would you guys like that?”

“Yeah!” Peter grinned from ear to ear.

“What about you, Penny?” her daddy looked over at her.

“Yes, I’d like that,” Penny said quietly, the small smile back on her lips.

“Great,” their daddy rubbed his hands together. “Well, I’m gonna let you guys get back to playing—I’ll see you a few days.”

Their dad left their floor, turning around to look at them and wave one last time. Then he disappeared, leaving Penny to think that maybe living here wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

That night, Peter was practically bouncing off the walls to the extent that even Ms. Edwards’ threats of losing dinner were lost on the small boy. Eventually, Ms. Edwards gave up, opting to let him talk everyone’s ear off with no consequences. However, every time Peter raised his voice a notch, Penny’s eyes darted over to where Ms. Edwards was knitting on the couch, sure that the old woman would snap and hit her brother with the wooden spoon.

But she didn’t, and for the whole rest of the night, Peter couldn’t stop talking about how they were going to hang out with their daddy, and how he was going to show them his Iron Man suit.  
  
“Penny, Penny, isn’t it so exciting!” Peter gushed as Penny flipped through her picture book on the floor of the living room. Penny opened her mouth to respond, but Peter kept talking. “We’re gonna meet a real-life superhero! I wonder if he knows any of the other superheroes!”

Then, Peter stopped talking for a minute, and his eyes glazed over as the thought dawned on him.

“What if he knows Captain America?” Peter breathed, a grin taking over his face. “Penny, we’re gonna meet Captain America!”

“Captain America is rarely around, Peter. He is too busy defending the world,” Ms. Edwards cut in, focusing on her knitting. “And as for what your father promised you—I would be cautious when getting your hopes up. Mr. Stark is a very busy man as well, and he hardly has any time to entertain two rowdy children such as yourselves.”

Peter’s entire being seemed to deflate at Ms. Edwards’ words, and even Penny found her heart sinking. She should have known that their daddy was not going to save her and Pete. It was all too good to be true.

At that moment, Penny found herself wishing her father had never come up and introduced himself. It’s better to not have a dad at all than to have a dad who doesn’t care about you, Penny decided.

“Penelope, Peter, it’s time for bed,” Ms. Edwards announced. “Go get ready to sleep.”

Penny obeyed and walked to her room, but not before putting away her book neatly in the book bucket. Peter followed her, tears coming out of his eyes, but he did his best to hide them from Ms. Edwards.

Peter was unsuccessful.

“Peter Benjamin, stop that crying at once,” Ms. Edwards snapped. “You have absolutely no reason to cry; a lot of children around the world would be thankful for what you have. Be grateful you have a roof over your head and food to eat. Understand?”

“Yes, Ms. Edwards,” Peter all but whispered, rubbing his eyes with his fist.

* * *

  
_“Penny, my love, come here.”_

_Penny looked around to find herself in her old room at Cedar Hill. She was in her old bed, with Peter sound asleep right next to her. Her heart ached for the familiarness, the safety and love she felt when she lived here._

_“Penny, do you hear me?” a soft voice came from the doorway, and Penny looked to see her mommy standing there, looking as kind and beautiful as ever. Her hand was outstretched towards Penny. “Come, honey, quietly now so we don’t wake your brother.”_

_Penny slid out of bed and took her mother’s hand, and soon she was led into the hallway near their room. They passed by Luke’s room, and Penny peered in to see her older brother snoring in his bed, sprawled out on top of the covers. The house was eerily quiet, with the only sounds being their footsteps and the ticking of the clock._

_Tick… tock… tick… tock…_

_Penny’s mother sat down on the couch in the living room, pulling Penny up so that the young girl was curled up against her chest._

_“I love you so much, Penny,” her mother whispered, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry I had to leave you so soon.”_

_“It’s okay, mommy,” Penny mumbled, her eyes threatening to close from sleepiness._

_“Have you been good for Ms. Edwards and daddy?” her mother inquired, and Penny froze. Had she been good? It seemed like she was in a lot of trouble these days._

_Penny felt her mother tense up from her silence._

_“Penny, you’ve been good, right?” her mother pushed her away from her chest and looked Penny straight in the eyes. “Please tell me you’ve been good.”_

_“I—mommy I tried but—” Penny tried to explain, but suddenly she was on the ground and her mother standing over Penny, her eyes blazing with anger._

_“I told you to be good, Penelope,” her mother hissed. Penny started to cry. Her mommy raised a wooden spoon up in the air and began to hit her with it, and Penny screamed and kicked and hollered, trying to get her mommy to stop hitting her._

_“Luke! Luke help me!” Penny screamed out, but her older brother was nowhere to be seen._

_“This should teach you to learn your lesson, Penelope,” her mommy said._

_“Penelope!”_

_“Penelope!”_

“Penelope!”

Penny’s eyes shot open, part of her glad that she was back in her room at Stark towers. Penny sat up and looked to the door where Ms. Edwards was standing in her nightgown, annoyance written all over her face.

“It is 2 o’clock in the morning, Penelope,” Ms. Edwards scolded. “You should know better than to scream like that when people are trying to sleep.”

With that, Ms. Edwards left, slamming the door shut, leaving Penny to cry softly to herself. After a few minutes, the door opened again, this time much more slowly, and Penny looked to see Peter at the door, his baby blanket in his hands and his brown hair wild from sleep.

“Penny? Penny, are you okay?” Peter asked her, and Penny just shook her head ‘no.’

“I’m so scared here,” Penny admitted to her brother, hiccuping. “I want mommy.”

Peter closed the door shut, and then climbed up into Penny’s bed.

“Me too,” Peter whispered, and Penny instinctively cuddled into her twin like they used to, and that’s how they fell asleep.

* * *

 

In the morning, Ms. Edwards didn’t seem to know that Peter had gotten out of bed the previous night and slept in Penny’s, which they were both beyond grateful for, but Penny couldn’t help but be on edge as she slowly swallowed her spoonful of cold oatmeal. Not that she was ever not on edge, but she was a little more than usual. Luckily, Ms. Edwards hadn’t pulled out the wooden spoon since yesterday’s incident.

The front glass doors opened, and Penny looked up from her breakfast to see the lady she had met yesterday, Miss. Pepper, walk into their kitchen, all dressed and a smile on her face.

“Hi Penny, hi Peter,” Miss. Pepper greeted them. She sat down at the table with them. “How’s your breakfast?”

“Good, Miss. Pepper,” Peter answered her, but when Miss. Pepper turned around to find Ms. Edwards, Peter made a yucky face and Penny couldn’t help but giggle. Miss. Pepper turned back around and Penny’s smile fell off of her face, but the woman only gave her a kind smile.

Penny liked Miss. Pepper. A lot.

“Ms. Edwards, I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d like to spend some time with the twins today,” Miss. Pepper said to Ms. Edwards. “Get to know them and such.”

Penny’s eyes doubled in size at Miss. Pepper’s words. Did she want to spend time with them? Away from Ms. Edwards? Penny hoped Ms. Edwards would say yes, and she almost joyfully jumped out of her chair when she did. Almost.

“Of course, Miss. Potts,” Ms. Edwards said sweetly. “They’re such great kids—you’re going to love them.” Ms. Edwards stroked their heads affectionately, and Penny flinched when the old woman’s hand touched her head. Looking up at Miss. Pepper, Penny saw a flash of uncertainty on the woman’s face, but it was gone when she spoke next.

“Great! Penny, Peter, go get dressed and meet me in the living room, okay?” Miss. Pepper told them, getting up to sit in the living room. Penny and Peter shoveled the rest of their oatmeal into their mouths before excusing themselves from the table and rushing to get dressed.

Penny pulled open one of the bottom drawers in her closet, searching through to find a shirt and pants to wear. Every item of clothing she owned could fit into the small drawer, so she only had a limited selection of clothes. She pulled on the outfit that she had worn just days before—a slightly too small pink shirt with a hole at the bottom and one of her two pairs of jeans. Both pairs of jeans had multiple holes and dirt stains on them, all from playing outside back in Cedar Hill.

It had been a long time since she’d been outside, Penny realized as she pulled on one of her tennis shoes, once white but now more of a yellowish brown color. She pulled on the other one, but she remembered that she didn’t know how to tie shoelaces. Penny looked at them for a while, stumped until there was a knock at her door and Miss. Pepper came into her room.

“Hey sweetheart, is everything okay?” Miss. Pepper asked. She took one look at Penny’s clothes and frowned. “Oh honey, don’t you have any shirts that don’t have holes in them?”

“No ma’am,” Penny said with a shake of her head. Had she done something wrong? She didn’t want to make Miss. Pepper mad; Penny was starting to like her. “The rest are in the washing machine.”

Miss. Pepper peered into her closet.

“Honey, do you not have a lot of clothes?” Miss. Pepper asked softly. Penny just shook her head, looking down at her untied shoes.

“Our mommy couldn’t afford a lot of clothes,” Penny explained, her voice small. “So we don’t have a lot.”

“Oh, my,” Miss. Pepper sighed. “Is it the same way for your brother?”

Penny nodded her head yes.

“Okay, well that’s no good,” Miss. Pepper said. “I’m going to get your sizes and get you a lot more clothes, okay Penny?”

“You don’t—I don’t need more clothes, Miss. Pepper, I’m fine with what I have,” Penny protested. She knew how expensive clothes were, and she didn’t want her new friend to spend that much money on her.

“Nonsense, darling,” Miss. Pepper said with a wave of her hand. “Now come on, I’m sure Peter’s going to start wondering if we left without him if we don’t get going soon.”

Miss. Pepper held her hand out towards Penny, and for a split second, it reminded her of her mother in her dream. But regardless of whether or not she trusted Miss. Pepper, she grabbed onto the hand anyways because the last thing she wanted was Miss. Pepper getting angry as Ms. Edwards had.

“So, where do you want to go?” Miss. Pepper asked while taking Peter and Penny into the elevator.

“I dunno,” Peter shrugged. “What is there?”

“You mean Ms. Edwards hasn’t shown you around Stark Towers?” Miss. Pepper looked shocked. “That’s strange. Well then. How about I give you a tour?”

“Yeah!” Peter cheered.

“Okay,” Penny agreed.

“Great!” Miss. Pepper smiled. “Let’s start at… Jarvis, take us to floor 15.”

“Right away, Miss. Potts,” there was the male voice in the ceiling again.

“Jarvis is the Artificial Robot in the walls of Stark Towers,” Miss. Pepper must have seen Penny and Peter looking around, trying to find the voice. “Your daddy invented her a long time ago, along with a whole bunch of other things.”

The elevator doors dinged open to a floor with glass rooms. In the glass rooms were all sorts of robots and equipment, along with a bunch of people in white lab coats.

“This is one of many labs here in Stark Towers,” Miss. Pepper explained, and she lead them through the floor. “All of these people work for your daddy, and they’re in charge of designing, building, and inventing things for Stark Industries.”

“Like what, Miss. Pepper?” Peter asked, making sure to keep close to the woman as not to get lost in the sea of people and machines.

“Your daddy’s father used to own Stark Industries, and he sold weapons, but now that your daddy and I are in charge we don’t anymore,” Miss. Pepper answered. “Now we concentrate on creating technology like phones and other things like that.”

They made it to the end of the floor, where there was another elevator.

“Jarvis, take us to floor 46,” Miss. Pepper requested, and up they went. It opened up to a floor with yet another living space, but this one felt homier. The kitchen was stocked with all kinds of food instead of being bare, and the living room had couches that were slightly worn down from use. On one of those couches had a man, and Penny recognized him as the man she had seen yesterday when they had run away from Ms. Edwards. Upon their arrival, the man stood up and approached them with a smile.

“Penny, Peter, this is Colonel Rhodes,” Miss. Pepper introduced him.

“War Machine?” Peter breathed, his eyes the size of dinner plates.

“That’s me, kid,” the man chuckled. He knelt so he was their height. “But you can call me Rhodey.”

“It’s so awesome to meet you, Mr. Rhodey War Machine sir!” Peter was bursting with excitement, so much that Penny thought her brother might faint. “I have your action figure—you’re so cool!”

“Well, thank you,” Rhodey chucked. “And you know what? I think you’re cool too. After all, you are my best friends’ son.”

“Wait, my daddy knows you?” Peter was now jumping up and down, unable to contain his excitement.

“He sure does, kiddo,” Rhodey smiled.

“Miss. Potts, do you know our daddy?” Penny peered up at Miss. Potts, who was watching Rhodey and Peter’s exchange with a smile on her face.

“I do,” Miss. Potts nodded. “I’m your daddy’s girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” Peter’s attention momentarily shifted from Rhodey to Miss. Pepper. “Does that mean you guys… kiss and stuff?”

“Sometimes,” Miss. Pepper laughed.

“Yuck,” Peter made a face, much like the one he made at breakfast towards his cold oatmeal, and Penny couldn’t help but make that face too. Kissing was gross—she had seen Mr. and Mrs. Watson kiss when she went over to their house, and it was safe to say that Penny didn’t like it.

“That’s just what adults do,” Luke had explained to her when she had asked him about it. “Mom always tells me I’ll understand when I’m older.”

“Now, Rhodey, would you mind watching them for a little bit, maybe putting on a movie for them?” Miss. Potts asked, and Penny’s heart sank a tad when she realized Miss. Pepper was going to leave. “I need to go place orders for their new clothes.”

“Of course,” Rhodey nodded his head with a smile. “What movie do you kiddos want to watch?”

“Can we watch Finding Nemo?” Peter requested, and Penny looked up at Rhodey hopefully, because Finding Nemo was their favorite movie in the whole wide world. Back in Cedar Hill, they could never afford new films, so they only had a handful—Finding Nemo being one of them. They used to watch it so much that they could quote certain parts of the movie. So when Rhodey said yes and put it on, Penny felt an ache for her old home.

Rhodey sat on the couch, and Peter sat next to him. Penny sat on the other side of Peter, curling up against her brother and training her eyes to the screen. Penny watched as Nemo’s mommy died at the beginning, as it made her sad because her mommy had died too. But then, as the movie went on, Penny saw that Nemo’s dad loved him very much, so much that he swam across an entire ocean to find him.

Penny wondered if her own daddy loved her enough to swim across an entire ocean to find her. Gee, she really hoped so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> awww, so cute huh? 
> 
> oh btw, thanks everyone for all the positive feedback so far! it really makes a difference in my motivation and confidence so gracias! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey Peter, hey Penny,” Miss. Pepper greeted them with a chuckle. “How are you guys?"
> 
> “Good,” Penny and Peter answered at the same time, even though Penny didn’t feel good at all. She felt scared because of Ms. Edwards and Sid, and she felt sad and disappointed because her daddy didn’t seem to care about Peter or her at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: More child abuse. Please don't read if this could be triggering to you.

Penny and Peter lived in hopeful anticipation for the next two days, practically counting down the hours until their father came to see them. Peter busied himself by playing with his action figures, but Penny never felt like playing anymore, so she found herself spending most of her time next to the large window in the living room. She would either color or read her books, but she noticed herself looking up at the window every few minutes—a small part deep down hoping she would see a flash of red and gold high in the sky. Proof that her daddy hadn’t been lying when he promised he would spend time with them.

  
Soon enough the third day came, and Penny shifted her eyes from the window to the glass doors. Hours passed by painfully slow, to the point where Peter was sitting on the couch, eyes trained on the doors. Penny remembered Ms. Edwards telling them not to get their hopes up. Neither Penny or Peter had listened to that advice.

  
But when the doors did open revealing not their father, but Miss. Pepper, telling them with a sad look on her face that their dad was going to be away for a few more days longer, Penny found herself wishing she had taken the old woman’s advice. Miss. Pepper told them that as soon as he got back, he would come to see them, but Penny couldn’t help but doubt that.

  
She was hurt and disappointed, but most of all, she was sad. One glance at Peter, who was clutching his Captain America doll in his hands and trying to hold back tears, told Penny that her brother felt the same way.

  
Just a few more days, Penny told herself as she went back to staring out the window. But she had a hard time believing it

* * *

Penny had another nightmare that same night. This time, she dreamed that she was trapped in a glass box, water pouring down from the top and quickly rising to her chest. Penny looked up to see her father standing in front of the box she was stuck in, but he stood still, making no move to come and rescue Penny from her soon to be a watery grave. Penny screamed, banging on the glass, crying for him to save her, but he didn’t. Instead, he turned around and walked away, and the water rose above her eyes until she was submerged and couldn’t breathe.

  
Then she woke up.

  
This time she woke up on her own, with no sound of Ms. Edwards or anyone outside of the door. Her room felt uncomfortably cold, and Penny shivered even though she was under the covers. For the first time, Penny noticed how dark her room was, save for the light of the digital clock that sat on her nightstand. She hated it.

  
Penny pushed the covers off of her body, sliding out of her bed and quietly walking towards her door and out of her room. She found Peter’s door and opened it to see her brother sleeping soundly in his bed. His Captain America action figure was sitting perched on his nightstand as if the toy was a line of defense against any night time monsters that could make their way to Peter. Penny climbed into Peter’s bed, sliding under the covers, and Peter shifted as if he could feel her presence. Maybe he could.

  
After getting situated under the covers, Penny finally closed her heavy eyes, a dreamless sleep gently taking over her until morning time.

* * *

When she woke up, Penny felt that there was something off in the morning. Usually, in the mornings, Ms. Edwards would wake up at seven a.m. sharp, making sure to wake Penny and Peter if they managed to stay asleep until then (they usually didn’t). The only exceptions to that rule were Saturday when they were allowed to sleep in until nine a.m..

  
“It’s important to learn self-discipline at a young age,” Ms. Edwards always told them when waking them up. Peter usually responded to that by sticking his tongue out at the old woman behind her back.

  
So when the clock struck ten a.m, and Ms. Edwards had still not come out of her room, Penny knew there was something wrong.

  
“Maybe she’s dead,” Peter said, glancing over at Ms. Edwards’ door. Penny was now well enough acquaintance with the concept of death to know that was certainly a possibility, but she tried not to think about it, instead opting to believe that Ms. Edwards was just sleeping in.

  
(Penny wondered how she would feel if Ms. Edwards actually turned out to be dead, but when she discovered that she wouldn’t be very sad she pushed the thought away.)

  
Breakfast time soon went by, followed by lunchtime, and Penny found herself super hungry, but she and her brother weren’t allowed to touch the food in the kitchen. They also weren’t allowed in Ms. Edwards’ bedroom, which meant they couldn’t wake her up, so Peter and Penny opted to sit on the couch in the living room and read their picture books, both of their tummies growling with hunger.

  
Then the front glass doors swung open, and an unfamiliar middle-aged man came through, startling Penny and making her drop her book onto the floor. He was big and tall, with a broad chest and shoulders, and an almost square jaw. His hair was unnaturally blonde, and his eyes were an icy blue color that made Penny shiver when they looked at her.

  
“Are you guys Peter and Penny?” the man asked, his voice mean and gruff. Penny and Peter simply nodded, too taken aback by this strange man in their living room.

  
“Alright kiddies, my auntie Ms. Edwards is sick today, so she called me and asked me to watch you,” the man said. “So don’t be a couple of jerks today to ol’ Sid and we’ll end up getting along quite nicely, got it?”

  
Penny and Peter just nodded again. The man, Sid, walked over to the couch that they were on.

  
“Well come on, shoo, get off the couch,” Sid ordered. “Go sit in your rooms or something.” Penny and Peter obeyed, still too shell-shocked to even think about defying the unnamed man, and slid off the couch. They grabbed their books and made their way to their rooms, but instead of Peter going to his room they both went into Penny’s. Penny closed the door, leaving it open just a crack.

  
“That man seems super scary,” Peter whispered, shuffling over to sit in a far corner of Penny’s room behind her bed.

  
“I know,” Penny agreed, sitting down onto the floor next to her twin. “Even scarier than Ms. Edwards.”

  
“I’m hungry,” Peter clutched his stomach, looking like he was about to cry, but made no move to leave the room in search of food.

  
The day went by slowly, with Penny and Peter remaining on the floor of Penny’s bedroom. By then the twins were starving, and Penny had half a mind to leave her fears of Sid behind to look for food. Finally, she gathered up the courage, moving to her door to listen for sounds.

  
All she could hear was the sounds coming from the TV. Penny opened the door, Peter right behind her, and they tiptoed out into the hallway, taking extra care to make as little noise as possible. The room was dark; the only light in the room was coming from the TV screen. Sid was on the couch, holding a glass bottle in his hands with many more littered around his feet. Penny recognized that bottle as one of the drinks that her mommy had told her she couldn’t drink until she was an adult because it was awful for kids. She wrinkled her nose at the stench in the living room coming from the bottles.

  
They were almost to the kitchen when Peter tripped over a piece of trash that was laying in the middle of the room, causing him to tumble forward and crash to the ground. He let out a tiny yelp, and Penny froze, holding her breath, but it was too late. Sid perked up and looked around, his unfocused eyes training in their direction.

  
“I thought I told you two to stay in your rooms!” Sid shouted, his words slurred, and Penny felt like the amount of anger in his voice was unnecessary.

  
Then, in a fit of rage, Sid stood up, grabbed one of his bottles, and hurled it straight at them, crashing into the wall right next to them. The bottle was now on the floor, smashed into tiny pieces of glass, and Penny couldn’t move because that had been so dangerously close to hitting her in the face.

  
After a moment, Penny was able to snap out of her trance and grabbed Peter’s arm, pulling him to his feet and running as fast as she could back to her room. Penny closed it quickly, her heart racing faster than it ever had before. She and Peter stood there in her room for the longest time, trying to process what had just happened, before a soothing voice came from the ceiling—the same one from the elevator.

  
“Penny, the man in the living room seems to be heavily intoxicated and dangerous. Would you like me to notify Miss. Pepper Potts about this?” the voice—JARVIS, was it?—asked her. Penny thought about what the robot asked her, but in the end, she decided she didn’t want to disappoint Miss. Pepper when she found out that the reason Sid had thrown the bottle was that Penny and Peter had broken the rules and left the bedroom when they weren’t supposed to.

  
“No, sir,” Penny sniffled, feeling tears starting to prick her eyes as the adrenaline wore off, leaving her to feel scared and sad.

  
“Very well,” JARVIS complied. “may I at least suggest locking your door for the night?”

  
“The door doesn’t lock,” Penny told the robot, wiping her now wet eyes.

  
“Sure it does, Miss. Penny,” JARVIS said. “I am programmed to have the ability to lock any door in the tower.” and with those words, Penny heard her door make a low clicking sound. “Your door is now locked, and will not be able to be opened unless you or those who have special clearance request for it to be unlocked.”

  
“Special clearance?” during the conversation, Peter had crawled into Penny’s bed, still in his daytime clothes. “Who has special clearance?”

  
“Those who have special clearance include Pepper Potts, Colonel Rhodes, and of course, your father, Mister Stark,” JARVIS answered. “Now, I suggest you and Penny get some rest—it’s getting quite late.”

  
“Okay,” Peter let out a big yawn, and Penny felt her eyelids getting heavy. She climbed into her bed next to Peter, also still in her clothes, but she couldn’t be bothered to change into pajamas. She curled up next to her brother, rubbing her eyes.

  
“JARVIS?” Penny whispered to the ceiling. “Are you always here?”

  
“I am always here and ready to assist you with anything, Penny,” the robot answered. “If you ever need anything at all, please do not hesitate to ask me.”

  
“Thanks, JARVIS,” Penny mumbled into her pillow, sleep beginning to take over her. “You’re a good friend.”

  
“As are you, Penny,” JARVIS said, and if AI’s could have a tone, Penny could have sworn the robot’s tone would have been sincere. “Now, goodnight, Penny and Peter. Sleep well.”  
And they did.

* * *

Sid was gone the next day, thank god, and Ms. Edwards fed them their usual bowl of cold oatmeal for breakfast. It was still gross, but Penny didn’t mind as much this time, given that this is the first thing she’d been able to eat in over 24 hours. Peter, who was notorious for making faces while eating, cut back on that habit for this meal, opting instead to scarf down the food in front of him hungrily.

  
“Peter, slow down when eating your food,” Ms. Edwards scolded. Since she was still getting over being sick, she seemed to be in a bad mood, like a grumpy lion who would pounce on the next person who bothered her. Penny didn’t wish to be that person, so she bent her head down and ate her oatmeal in silence.

  
It was hard not to be that person.

  
After finishing her breakfast, Penny picked up her bowl and started her journey to the sink; her focus concentrated on not dropping it. Too bad she wasn’t watching her feet, because one of her feet got caught on the leg of a chair, causing Penny to drop the bowl to the ground. It smashed into pieces, and Penny couldn’t help but remember Sid throwing the bottle at her last night, but that thought was soon pushed away when Ms. Edwards smacked her on the back of the legs with her trusty wooden spoon.

  
“Penelope, you know very well to be careful with fragile things like that bowl,” Ms. Edwards scolded. “Just imagine what that will cost your father to replace it.”

  
Penny felt tears crawling up her throat, but she managed to hold them in because she wasn’t supposed to cry like a baby anymore. Penny did know how much glass bowls cost, and she was pretty sure that was why her mom had opted to use plastic dishware.

  
“Clean it up,” Ms. Edwards ordered, dropping a broom and dustpan, along with a towel, at Penny’s feet. Then, the old woman left the kitchen, leaving Penny and Peter alone in the kitchen.

  
“I’ll help you, Penny,” Peter offered, sliding out of his chair, but Penny panicked and shook her head.

  
“No, she’ll get mad at you,” Penny whispered.

  
“She gets mad at me all the time,” Peter shrugged, reaching down and grabbing the dustpan. “Sweep it into the pan.”

  
Penny awkwardly swept the broken glass into the dustpan, which was hard because the broom was three times taller than her. With Peter’s help, she managed to get all the pieces into the trash, but when she looked down at her hands, Penny realized she had accidentally cut herself on a piece of glass. The cut stung, but it wasn’t bleeding too much, so she rinsed it under the sink once before leaving it alone.

  
Peter and Penny spent their day like most days—at this point, it was starting to get boring and repetitive. Penny had long since run out of picture books to look at, and she was running out of pages to color in her coloring book, and Peter seemed to be tired of his action figures—which was saying something, because back at home Peter had played with them for hours on end.  
But they’d been stuck with Ms. Edwards on the same floor for weeks now.

  
So when the front glass doors opened and Miss. Pepper came walking through, a smile on her cheerful freckled face, Penny felt herself get giddy with excitement.

  
“Miss. Pepper!” Peter cheered, a huge grin on his face.

  
“Hey Peter, hey Penny,” Miss. Pepper greeted them with a chuckle. “How are you guys?”

  
“Good,” Penny and Peter answered at the same time, even though Penny didn’t feel good at all. She felt scared because of Ms. Edwards and Sid, and she felt sad and disappointed because her daddy didn’t seem to care about Peter or her at all.

  
Miss. Pepper seemed to read Penny’s mind at that last one because her face twisted into a sympathetic frown.

  
“I’m so sorry your dad hasn’t been able to see you two,” Miss. Pepper apologized, even though Penny knew it wasn’t her fault at all. “I promise you; he’s just caught up in a meeting and the minute he gets home he’s going to come up to see you.”

  
Miss. Pepper glanced towards the door, as if she was hiding something back there, and continued speaking.

  
“In the meantime, we managed to find some people who love and miss you…” Miss. Pepper gestured to someone outside of the doors, and the doors opened to reveal a man and a woman, both familiar to Penny, but she couldn’t place them for some reason.

  
The woman was skinny, with straight brown hair and kind brown eyes, and when those eyes landed on Penny and Peter they began to fill up with tears, and the woman covered her mouth with her hands. The man was big and tall, and he had the biggest smile on his face when he saw the twins. They were both young, probably in their twenties.

  
“Oh my,” the woman whispered from behind the hand in front of her mouth, and Penny recognized the voice. It sounded like…

  
Aunt May. The couple was Penny and Peter’s, Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Penny had only met them once a couple of years ago when their mommy had taken the twins up to New York to visit them. Penny didn’t have too many memories of them, but what she could remember was Aunt May’s sweet, soothing voice, filled with overwhelming love, and Uncle Ben’s doting and loving personality as he snuck her a bowl of ice cream before dinner.

  
Most importantly was the fact that these people were familiar in a way that made Penny suddenly feel safe from any harm that would come her way. So when Aunt May held her arms out, Penny didn’t hesitate to run towards them, letting her aunt hold her tightly in her arms. When Penny glanced up from Aunt May’s embrace, she saw Uncle Ben holding Peter high in the air, and her brother was giggling as Uncle Ben teased him about various things.

  
“We were so worried when we found out your mommy died and moved from Cedar Hill,” Aunt May whispered, the tears in her eyes spilling over onto her face. “So when your social worker told me you were here… we were so happy. We’re still so happy.”

  
“I’m happy too,” Penny whispered.

  
“Well, you and Peter can see your aunt and uncle whenever you’d like,” Miss. Pepper said with a smile on her face. “Just let me or Ms. Edwards know, and we’ll get Happy to drive you over to their apartment, or they’re always welcome here.”

  
“You don’t know how much this means to us, Miss. Potts,” Uncle Ben said, putting Peter back down on the ground so he could go hug Aunt May. “I don’t know how we can repay you.”  
“We want absolutely nothing in return,” Miss. Pepper insisted, waving her hand. “The only thing you can do is continue to stay in Peter and Penny’s lives; I know it would make them beyond happy.”

  
“You won’t have to worry about that,” Aunt May ran her fingers through Penny’s hair, and her touch made Penny practically melt.

  
It had been a while since Penny had been this happy, and for a while they all stayed where they were, Penny and Peter, holding onto their aunt and uncle and never wanting to let go. However, when Penny glanced back at Miss. Pepper, she was surprised to see a twinge of sadness in the woman's expression. Why was the woman so sad when this meeting was so happy? Penny and Peter had finally found a family to love and protect them!

  
Miss. Pepper must have noticed Penny’s questioning gaze on her because the woman adjusted her expression to where the sadness was gone. Penny knew it was still there, hidden behind all the happiness and smiles.

  
Then, Uncle Ben picked Penny up and swung her up onto his shoulders, commenting on how she looked like a big girl already, and all troubling thoughts were pushed away from Penny’s mind, only leaving pure happiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayyy Aunt May and Uncle Ben are here! Also, look forward to Aunt May almost beating Tony's ass in the next chapter. God, I love that woman!
> 
> Comments keep me going, so let me know what you think of the story so far!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Man, I wish I was a superhero,” Peter sighed, wistfully thinking, probably about what it would be like to be one.
> 
> “Yeah, it’s pretty cool, huh?” Daddy laughed, putting the suit away. “Actually, scratch that—it’s freaking fantastic.

One of Penny’s fondest memories was of her fifth birthday. In their family birthday parties were never a thing because of how costly and time consuming they could be, so on their birthdays they usually opted to simply spend time with family. Mommy had gotten both Peter and Penny their own cakes—Peter’s cake had a drawing of Captain America and Penny’s cake had pink puppies and kittens. Next to both cakes was a present and envelope. After Mommy and Luke sang happy birthday, Peter and Penny both blew out their candles.

  
Setting the cakes aside to eat later, Penny and Peter opened their presents. Peter ripped his gift open, shreds of wrapping paper falling onto the kitchen floor, but Penny took her time, carefully pulling off each piece of tape until the paper came off in one giant piece. The wrapping paper had been concealing a wooden chest, and when opened it revealed a bunch of dolls and doll clothes. The dolls were old, and Penny picked one up gently with both hands, taking time to study it.

  
“Those dolls belonged to your grandmother,” Mommy had told her. “So I’m trusting you to keep them safe, so one day you can pass them down to your own daughter.”

  
Of course Penny took her mother's words very seriously, placing the doll back into the chest and locking it up.

  
Then, Penny turned to the envelope, carefully tearing it open and pulled out a card that said “Happy Birthday!”. Inside the card was a message from her mother in her beautiful handwriting, and a ticket. Penny removed the ticket, picking it up and holding it to the light as if there was a hidden message on it.

  
“That’s a movie ticket, Penny,” Mommy had explained, probably seeing the confused look on Penny’s face. “Peter, you have one too, and so do Luke and I. We’re going to the movie theater tonight!”

  
Penny and Peter had never been to the movie theater because the tickets were way too expensive for their mother to pay. Luke had been once with his dad, and he told them all about his experience the next time the twins saw him.

  
“The seats are comfy, and the screen is so big,” Luke had said excitedly. “Like, one-hundred times bigger than me. It’s so cool!”

  
So that night they went to the movie theater, and Peter and Penny each got a box of their choice of candy. Penny couldn’t remember what movie it was, but what she could remember was being sandwiched between her mother and Luke, Peter on the other side of their mom. She remembered the happiness she had felt being so close to her family, and the feeling that nothing could make it better.

  
Now, when sitting in the back of her aunt and uncle’s car while they drove Penny and Peter back to Stark Towers, Penny felt the resurgence of that feeling. Aunt May was chatting with them from the passenger seat, telling them all about what she did for work and how she and Uncle Ben met. Uncle Ben was driving the car, focused on traffic, but pulled over to drive through an ice cream shop drive thru.

  
“I can’t end my day with my favorite five-year-old niece and nephew without getting them ice cream,” Uncle Ben defended to Aunt May when she protested, saying it was too close to dinner time, and Penny and Peter giggled at Uncle Ben’s choice of words.

  
“We’re your only five-year-old niece and nephew,” Peter reminded Uncle Ben.

  
“And that makes you my favorite,” Uncle Ben winked at them through the rear view mirror.

  
So after a stop at the ice cream store, Uncle Ben and Aunt May took Peter and Penny back to Stark Towers after a long day of playing in central park and seeing the statue of liberty. They walked the twins into the lobby where Ms. Edwards was sitting on a couch, waiting for them. Upon seeing them, Ms. Edwards stood up and put on a sweet smile. Penny had known Ms. Edwards for long enough to know that smile was a load of fakeness.

  
Penny didn’t let go of Uncle Ben’s hand, her other hand wrapped around her half-eaten ice cream cone. She didn’t ever want to let go of her uncle’s hand, and for a split second she wondered why she had to in the first place. Penny thought of what it would be like for Uncle Ben to be her daddy, and she decided she loved the thought.

  
But then the lobby doors swung open, and she was reminded why she and Peter had to stay.

  
Her actual daddy came through the lobby doors, dressed in a very nice suit and expensive sunglasses. The sounds of clicking came from outside, most likely from cameras, and her daddy was waving at said cameras while an arrogant smirk was laying loosely on his lips. A bunch of bodyguards surrounded him, including Happy, the man Penny remembered meeting when she and Peter first arrived at Stark Towers.

  
It took a few minutes, but her father's head finally turned toward Penny, Peter, and their aunt and uncle. His smirk faltered a little, but he recovered quickly, walking over to the group in a few, long strides.

  
“Hi, I’m Tony,” Penny’s dad introduced himself, his words directed toward the adults. “And you are?”

  
“I’m Ben Parker, and this is my wife, May,” Uncle Ben answered, sticking a hand out, and her dad shook it. “We’re Peter and Penny’s aunt and uncle.”

  
“Oh!” as if he had forgotten about their existence, her dad looked down at Penny and Peter. “Well, I guess that makes me their Pops or something.”

  
“You’re damn right it does, Stark,” Aunt May growled, and Penny was shocked to hear her aunt say a bad word like that. She was even more surprised to hear such disdain in her usually kind aunt’s voice.

  
It seemed that her dad was as surprised as Penny was because he put his hands up in the air as if to surrender.

  
“Woah, is there a problem?” Penny’s dad raised his eyebrows from behind the sunglasses.

  
Aunt May glanced down at the twins, hesitating to say anything right in front of them.

  
“Peter, Penny, go sit on that couch over there, okay?” Aunt May said, giving them a sweet smile, and unlike Ms. Edwards’ smile, hers was real. Peter and Penny obeyed, but just because they were on the couch didn’t mean they couldn’t hear the conversation taking place between the adults.

  
“Let’s get straight to the point: I don’t like you one bit, Stark,” Aunt May said, her tone cold. “Just because you are their father biologically does not mean you’re fit to be one.”

  
“What is this referring to?” Penny’s dad sounded genuinely confused.

  
“Stark, you’re a very public person, and so I’m sure you’re aware that I know about your lifestyle,” Aunt May said. “So let me make this clear: if I get even a whiff of you hurting Peter or Penny in any way, I’ll make sure you never see them again. Got it?”

  
“Wow, yeah, I got it,” her daddy’s tone sounded like Luke’s when their mommy had told him to go to bed. “Geez.”

  
“No, you don’t get to be like that,” Aunt May’s voice was bitter. “I listened to those kids talk about you, and they didn’t have much to say.”

  
“Look, man, they’re such amazing kids,” Uncle Ben cut in, his own voice softer. “They deserve the world.”

  
Their dad didn’t say anything at that, so Aunt May turned her back on him to hug Peter and Penny.

  
“Goodbye, sweethearts,” Aunt May whispered, running her hands through their hair. “If you need anything at all, call your uncle or me.”

  
“Don’t go, Aunt May,” Penny gripped onto the woman’s shirt. “I want you to stay.”

  
“Yeah, me too,” Peter pouted.

  
“I have to go home, darlings,” Aunt May sighed, looking as if she wished she could stay.

  
After a quick goodbye from Uncle Ben, they left, leaving their father in the middle of the lobby, speechless. He removed his sunglasses and looked towards Peter and Penny. His mouth opened as if he was struggling to find words, but he eventually closed it and shook his head.

  
“Come along, children, let’s go have dinner,” Ms. Edwards said in her fake sweet voice that made Penny sick. She started to lead them off when their dad's voice rang through the lobby.

  
“Wait,” he called. Ms. Edwards turned around, looking almost annoyed but she didn’t say anything. “Would—would you two like to have dinner with Pepper and I tonight?”

  
Penny and Peter glanced at one another, and Peter shrugged, as if it say ‘it’s better than going with Ms. Edwards’. Besides, Penny really wanted to see Miss. Pepper—she had begun to become quite fond of the ginger-haired woman. She looked up to Ms. Edwards, as if silently asking the old woman if that was okay.

  
“Yes, of course, they’ll have dinner with you,” Ms. Edwards answered for them. She put a wrinkly hand on Penny and Peter’s backs, pushing them towards their father. “Now, you two be good for your father.”

  
The expression on Ms. Edwards’ face clearly said ‘be good or else.’ Penny gulped and nodded slowly in understanding.

  
They all got into the elevator, but Ms. Edwards got off at their own floor, leaving Penny and Peter alone with their dad. It was incredibly awkward because their father didn’t speak to either of his kids, only flashing nervous glances over at them. Penny started to feel nervous just by the way her dad was twiddling his fingers in his hands, so she decided to focus on Peter who looked just as uncomfortable.

  
“Where’s your Captain America?” Penny asked Peter quietly. Usually, Peter took it everywhere he went, so it was odd to see her brother without it.

  
“In my room,” Peter answered. “Uncle Ben told me to leave him when we left, or he might get lost.”

  
“That’s a good idea,” Penny nodded. Then they all fell back into silence until the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

  
“These are my private quarters,” their dad said, stepping out of the elevator. “Feel free to come up here whenever you want.”

  
Penny found it very similar to all the other living areas in the tower, but there was more clutter to signify that someone lived there. Dishes on the coffee table, picture frames sitting on various surfaces, flowers in vases—Penny found it comforting. It wasn't like Aunt May’s apartment (which was a mess), but she liked it anyways.

  
“Hey Pep, would you mind if we set two extra places at the table tonight?” Penny’s dad said when he led them into the kitchen, where Miss. Pepper was standing by the stove with a spoon in her hands. When her eyes fell on Penny and Peter the woman grinned.

  
“Of course,” Miss. Pepper said, and Penny couldn’t help but notice how eager she sounded. “How was your day with your aunt and uncle?”

  
“It was really fun,” Peter answered. He climbed into a chair at the kitchen table, looking back at Penny to see if she would join him. Penny just shook her head, standing by the entrance of the kitchen. She wouldn’t take anymore chances of getting in trouble—it seemed to happen a lot to her these days—so she stayed put. “Uncle Ben got us ice cream, even though he got in trouble with Aunt May.”

  
“Oh, my,” Miss. Pepper laughed, sitting down at the table next to Peter. Their father had disappeared somewhere. “That was nice of him, huh?”

  
“Yeah,” Peter nodded, a serious look on his face. “I think he’s gonna lose dessert after dinner.”

  
“Grownups don’t lose dessert, Peter,” Penny argued from where she was standing. Miss. Pepper’s eyes fell on her, and the woman frowned.

  
“Honey, why are you standing over there?” Miss. Pepper asked.

  
“May I come sit?” Penny peered up at the lady, half expecting her to say no.

  
“Of course, sweetheart, here, come sit right next to me—that way both of you can sit next to your daddy,” Miss. Pepper patted the chair next to her. Penny was more excited about getting to sit next to Miss. Pepper, and she quickly sat in the chair next to her. “So tell me, Penny, what was your favorite part of today?”

  
“I liked going to Central Park,” Penny answered. “It’s really green—also, I saw a ton of animals, including a duck and a kitty.”

  
They talked like that while they were waiting for dinner to be done for almost thirty minutes. A timer went ding, cutting Peter off when he was telling Miss. Pepper about his favorite superheroes. Miss. Pepper stood up and scooped servings onto plates, then putting one right in front of Peter and Penny.

  
Penny’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. On the plate was a pile of baked mac and cheese, steaming hot with pieces of bacon in it.

  
“I know it’s not the best of meals, but it’s all I had time to make tonight,” Miss. Pepper apologized, sitting down with her own plate. “I’d like to know your favorite foods so I can start cooking accordingly. JARVIS, can you please tell Tony that dinner is ready?”

  
“Right away, Miss. Potts,” JARVIS said right away. “Boss is in his lab right now, but I'll make sure he’s on his way.”

  
Miss. Pepper started to eat, but all Peter and Penny could do was stare at their plates. Usually, Ms. Edwards served them cold meatloaf or stew for dinner. She noticed, putting down her fork.

  
“Oh no, do you not like mac and cheese? I can make you something else if you’d like,” Miss. Pepper offered them, looking at them back and forth.

  
“Are we allowed to eat it all?” Penny asked quietly, nervously peering up at her.

  
“What? Of course you are, that’s why… why would you—” Miss. Pepper was cut off by their dad entering the kitchen, rubbing his hands together and licking his lips as he looked at his own plate.

  
“Pep, as always, looks amazing,” he praised, kissing her on the cheek before sitting down at his own place before digging in. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

  
“At least once,” Miss. Pepper said with a smirk.

  
“Well I’ll say it another time: I love you so much, Pepper,” Daddy smiled. Then he turned to Peter and said, “Kid, when you find a woman as amazing as her, never let her go.”

  
Peter nodded blankly, his mouth full of food, not really understanding what his dad was talking about. He shrugged to himself and turned back to his food.

  
Whatever Miss. Pepper was going to ask must have been lost on her tongue, because she didn’t bring it up. Peter started to eat so Penny took that as a sign that she could too, so she picked up her fork and ate it slowly. She didn’t want to waste the one hot meal she’d had in almost a month—she wanted to enjoy it.

  
“So Penny, did you get to see all of Central Park?” Miss. Pepper asked her. It reminded Penny of when they used to sit at the dinner table with their mommy, and she would ask her kids about their day and what they learned.

  
“You learn something new every day,” Mommy had always said.

  
“No, we ran out of time,” Penny answered, noticing that her plate was almost cleared.

  
“Well that stinks. Maybe your dad will take you to see the rest of it sometime?” Miss. Pepper said the last part while giving Daddy a pointed glare. It took him a minute to catch on, and when he did he nodded his head yes.

  
“Yeah, I’d love to, kiddo—tell you what guys, I promised you I’d show you my Iron Man suit, so how about after dinner I show you, and then later we’ll go back to Central Park,” their daddy suggested, looking from Peter to Penny and back to Peter.

  
“Tony, I don’t know if showing them your suit is a good idea—” Miss. Penny started to say, but she stopped when she saw Peter giving her a pleading look.

  
“Please, Miss. Pepper? We’ll be good, we won’t touch or do anything, we just wanna see it,” Peter begged, pulling out the puppy eyes. Luke had always said that Peter’s puppy eyes were his ultimate weapon, and Penny had to agree because Miss. Pepper seemed to give in.

  
“Alright, but Tony, be careful with them around, okay?” Miss. Pepper sighed. “I do not want to have to call May Parker and tell them that her niece or nephew got hurt by Iron Man.”

  
“Trust me, I don’t want that happening any more than you do,” Daddy agreed. “C’mon Pep, of course, I’ll keep them safe. I’m their dad, aren’t I? That’s what dads do.”

  
Miss. Pepper didn’t say anything else, just finished her dinner and collected all the dishes.

  
“You guys go,” Miss. Pepper said. “I’ll take care of the dishes.”

  
“You know I pay people to do dishes for us?” their daddy rolled his eyes.

  
“I do know, but I don’t think paying people to do normal chores is a good example to set for your kids,” Miss. Pepper stated flatly.

  
“I love ya, Pep.”

  
“Yeah yeah.”

* * *

“That is so awesome!” Peter was jumping up and down as their daddy put on one of his suits. People had always told them that their father was Iron Man, but Penny had never truly believed it until Iron Man's glowing gaze was staring her straight in the eyes. They were in their daddy’s private lab—a room that they were not, under any circumstances, allowed to enter without a trusted adult.

  
Penny had to agree with her twin on this one—it was super awesome. He demonstrated how he flew in the air and how he shot bolts out of his palms.

  
“Man, I wish I was a superhero,” Peter sighed, wistfully thinking, probably about what it would be like to be one.

  
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool, huh?” Daddy laughed, putting the suit away. “Actually, scratch that—it’s freaking fantastic.”

  
“Do you save people with that suit?” Penny asked, sitting down in a chair.

  
“Well yeah kid, that’s kind of in the job description,” her daddy said matter-of-factly. “I’ve saved the world before. You guys ever heard about the battle of New York? It happened a few months ago actually.”

  
“We saw it on the news for a little bit, but Mommy made us turn it off,” Peter told him. “She said it was too scary, but I think she just wanted us to go to bed.”

  
“Well in the battle of New York, I teamed up with a bunch of other superheroes to save the world from aliens,” Daddy boasted proudly. “Including your favorite Captain, Peter. Although I don’t see why he’s your favorite—he can’t even fly. Like me. You know what, I should be your favorite, kiddo. I can do it all. Except pick up Thors hammer thing, but nobody can so it doesn’t really count. Now, are you two ready to go to Central Park?”

  
Peter and Penny both nodded, and their dad pulled out his phone, pressing it to his ear and talking to someone about getting a ride while he lead them through the tower to the garage. They met Happy downstairs, and they all climbed into the back of the car, with Peter in the middle and Penny and their father in the outside seats. The car started moving, and they all rode in silence, Peter at one point making a silly face to make Penny giggle. They got there soon enough, but Penny was confused to see a bunch of people with cameras and notepads waiting outside.

  
“Who are those people?” Penny asked nervously.

  
“Oh, those are just reporters; ignore them, okay? Happy will get rid of them soon enough,” Daddy put his sunglasses onto his face even though the sun was starting to set.

  
“Okay,” Penny said. Their daddy opened his door and slid out, gesturing for the twins to follow suit. All at once Penny was bombarded by a sea of people who were all yelling, yelling at her and Peter, and there were flashes coming from each and every direction that chilled Penny to the bone. She and Peter were trying to keep up with their father, but he walked at such a fast pace that it was hard to keep him in sight.

  
“Tony, who are those kids?”

  
“Are those your kids, Mr. Stark?”

  
“How many other children have you fathered illegitimately, Mr. Stark?”

  
“Does Pepper Potts know about your secret love affair that resulted in your illegitimate children?”

  
“Are those kids the future of Stark Industries?”

  
So many questions, but her father answered none of them. Penny could hear Happy yelling at the reporters, demanding they back off and leave them alone, but the people just wouldn’t listen. Soon the reporters turned into a crowd of New Yorkers who came to see what all the fuss was about, and Penny started to freak out because she couldn’t see her dad anymore. Peter grabbed her hand and together they started to run, yelling for their dad, but it was like he was just gone.

  
“Daddy?”

  
“Daddy, where’d you go?”

  
Penny and Peter slowed down, standing in the middle of a very crowded Central Park, people not even stopping to spare a second glace at them. Penny started to cry, fat tears falling down her cheeks, and Peter’s lips were trembling.

  
“Daddy?” Penny whispered, but he didn’t show up, leaving her and Peter stranded alone in a very busy New York City.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no a cliffhanger !
> 
> Hope you liked it :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well… we have other places to go, right?” Peter nodded as if he was trying to convince himself. “We need to find Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s apartment.”
> 
> “How? We don’t know where they live."
> 
> “Then we’ll walk until we find them,” Peter shrugged. It sounded like a fair plan to Penny.

New York was the biggest city Penny had ever seen.

 

 

That being said, besides Cedar Hill it was the only city she’d ever seen. The buildings went on for miles and miles, and she wondered if it ever ended or if New York just went on forever. There were so many people, and as Penny and Peter ran down the sidewalks of NYC yelling for their father, she found herself running into leg after leg.

 

 

“Penny, are we lost?” Peter asked when they came up to a street corner. By now, the crowd that surrounded Central Park had thinned out, leaving the normal flow of traffic. The city was loud, cars honking and people yelling, so she could hardly hear him.

 

 

“I think so,” Penny bit her lip, trying to stop herself from crying any more than she had already.

 

 

“Let’s keep walking,” Peter suggested. “Maybe we’ll find him.”

 

 

They continued walking, making sure to keep their heads down when they passed people on the streets who looked dangerous. Penny held her eyes peeled, hoping her dad was right around the corner, but after twenty minutes they had no luck.

 

 

At one point, a kind woman stopped them in the middle of the road.

 

 

“Are you two okay?” She asked, peering down at them.

 

 

“We can’t find our daddy,” Peter answered shyly.

 

 

“Oh, okay,” the woman nodded, looking up and down the street as if she was looking for a childless parent to appear. “What’s your daddy’s name? Maybe we can ask around or something.”

 

 

“Our daddy is Iron Man,” Peter said, almost proudly, but the woman had disbelief written all across her face.

 

 

“No honey, I mean your real father,” the woman corrected him. Oh, Penny realized, she means his actual name, not his superhero name.

 

 

“His name is Tony Stark,” Penny said, but this didn’t help the woman at all.

 

 

“Okay, I’m going to take you two to the police station, okay? Hopefully, they can find your actual parents.” The woman reached out to take Peter’s hand, but he jumped out of her reach.

 

 

“We told you our daddy’s name,” Peter argued. “Why won’t you take us to him?”

 

 

“Because there’s no way Tony Stark is your father, sweetheart. He’s a celebrity; he’s not a real person,” the woman tried to reason with them, but it just confused them more. Was their dad not real? What did that mean?

 

 

“Our daddy is real,” Peter retorted. “C’mon, Penny, let’s go!” He started to race through the crowd, occasionally checking over his shoulder to make sure Penny was still behind him until the woman was long out of sight.

 

 

Suddenly, a sickening thought came to her mind, and she couldn’t get it out no matter how hard she tried.

 

 

“Peter… what if he was walking fast on purpose?” Penny whispered. Peter looked at her, his face falling at the thought.

 

 

“You mean he wanted to lose us?” Peter frowned, hurt flashing across his face. “But I thought he was starting to like us.”

 

 

“Mommy didn’t seem to like him very much. Maybe she was right,” a tear slipped out of Penny's eye, and she wiped it away. She didn’t have time to cry; she and Pete needed to figure out what they were going to do. She glanced at the sun, noticing it had almost set, the sky getting darker by the minute.

 

 

“Well… we have other places to go, right?” Peter nodded as if he was trying to convince himself. “We need to find Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s apartment.”

 

 

“How? We don’t know where they live."

 

“Then we’ll walk until we find them,” Peter shrugged. It sounded like a fair plan to Penny, so she continued to walk with him down the streets, taking random rights and lefts at intersections.

 

 

Now it was almost entirely dark, and the streets were now empty, leaving the twins alone. It was cold without the sun, and Penny shivered, hugging her arms against her body.

 

 

“I bet Captain America doesn’t get cold,” Peter said after a while of walking, his teeth starting to chatter. “I mean, he was frozen for a long time so…”

 

 

Suddenly, Penny became aware of footsteps falling behind her. She looked behind her shoulder to see a shadowy figure a few buildings back, obviously following them. She whimpered, looking forward and picking up her pace.

 

 

“Peter, walk faster,” Penny whispered. “Don’t look, but something is following us.”

 

 

The figure simply picked up its own pace. Penny’s heart started to race in her chest.

 

 

“Penny, let’s run,” Peter whispered, his brown eyes wide with fear.

 

 

“Okay,” Penny agreed, and they sped up into a run. To her horror, the figure started to run too. Penny ran as fast as her legs would take her, and even faster as she heard the footsteps begin to gain on her. She realized that no matter how fast she ran the figure was quicker, so she quickly grabbed Peter and dove into a nearby alleyway. The momentum made her and Peter fall to the ground, and Penny felt sparks of pain come up from her left ankle. The footsteps slowed down as they reached the alley they were in, and Peter pulled her against a dumpster, breathing heavily.

 

 

The figure entered the alleyway, and the light from a nearby car passing illuminated his features, revealing a middle-aged man with a sadistic smile on his face.

 

 

“My, aren’t you two pretty?” the man said, closing in on them. “So very pretty…”

 

 

“Please don’t hurt us, sir,” Penny begged him, hot tears coming up her throat.

 

 

“Oh darling, I wouldn’t dream of it,” the man assured her, but the expression on his face didn’t help Penny believe his words. He came up closer to them, reached out to touch them.

 

 

Suddenly, a cat jumped out of the dumpster, claws outstretched, lunging onto the man’s shoulders and digging its claws into the man’s flesh. It scratched the man’s face, leaving two red cuts running along his cheek.

 

 

The man roared in pain, grabbing the cat and throwing it hard against the brick wall. Penny yelped when the cat hit the wall, and she couldn’t help but worry when the cat didn’t get up.

 

 

Unfortunately, that fear redirected when the man turned back to her and Peter, a now angered look on his face as he stormed towards them.

 

 

Penny heard the sound of repulsers from the mouth of the alley, but she couldn’t see what it was because the man was blocking her view.

 

 

“Step away from them,” a familiar voice came from behind the man. The man whipped around, and Penny could finally see who it was.

 

 

It was Rhodey in his War Machine suit. Penny couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

 

 

“Shit,” the man whispered. He tried to run, but Rhodey was quick on his feet, grabbing the man from behind.

 

 

“Penny, Peter, close your eyes,” Rhodey ordered. Penny obeyed, squeezing her eyes shut, and she heard a smack and the sound of someone falling to the ground. “Tony, I found them in an alley on 7th street. Call the cops.”

 

 

Penny kept her eyes closed, and everything around her went silent.

 

 

“Okay, you can open your eyes now,” Rhodey announced, his voice gentle as he approached them. Penny opened them to see War Machine’s faceplate open, revealing worried eyes that scanned them for injuries. She looked over to see the man on the ground in a dark part of the alley. “Are you two okay?”

 

 

Penny was about to tell him about her ankle which hurt every time she tried to move it, but more repulsers came from the street, and Iron Man came running onto the scene.

 

 

“What’s going on? What do you need the cops for?” Penny and Peter’s dad bombarded them with questions. “Are they okay? Sh—I mean, crap, are they okay?”

 

 

“I think so, Tones,” Rhodey answered him, crouching in front of them. He pointed at the man in the shadows, who was unmoving.

 

 

“He was scary,” Peter said, eyeing the man from where he sat against the wall. “He was following us down the street…”

 

 

Daddy offered Peter his hand, pulling him off the ground and helping him stand up.

 

 

“We’ll talk about it later,” he promised. “First we just need to get you guys home.”'

 

 

Rhodey held out a hand to Penny, and she took it, but when she put pressure onto her left ankle, it hurt so bad that she saw stars. She cried out and fell back against the wall.

 

 

“What’s wrong, Pen? What hurts?” Rhodey’s hands hovered hear her body.

 

 

“I fell and hurt my ankle,” Penny whispered, rubbing her eyes to stop tears from spilling, and the motion left dirt on her face.

 

 

“Okay, can I carry you then?” Rhodey offered. Penny nodded, and he scooped her into his metal arms, her cheek resting on his shoulder tiredly. “Let’s go home, huh?”

 

 

Penny’s eyes fell on the cat, still laying on the ground.

 

 

“Is the kitty dead?” Penny whimpered, raising her head to look at it. Rhodey stopped, turning around to look at it. “It scratched the bad man…”

 

 

Her daddy approached it, poking it.

 

 

“It’s still alive, Penny,” Daddy assured her. He took the cat into his arms. “We’ll have the doctors at the tower look at it and make sure it’s okay.”

 

 

“Thank you, Daddy,” Penny’s head fell back against War Machine’s shoulder, her eyes suddenly feeling very heavy. Maybe if she had stayed awake, she would have seen her father freeze at her words because that was the first time either of them had called him “Dad,” and maybe she would have seen his shocked expression slowly morph into a small smile.

 

 

But she didn’t see any of that, instead opting to doze off as War Machine took off into the air towards Stark Towers.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Penny woke up the next day in her bed, Peter nowhere to been found. It had become normal for Peter to sleep in her bed or vice versa, so it was weird to be alone in such a big bed. She was alone in the room, the morning light seeping through the shut blinds.

 

 

The events from last night slowly came back to her, and she realized that her dad or Rhodey must have put her into her bed. She made a mental note to thank Rhodey for saving her and her brother. Penny sat up slowly, sticking her left foot out of the covers to see it wrapped in bandages so tightly that she couldn’t move it very easily. She guessed that was the point of the bandages.

 

 

The door to her room opened slowly, and her daddy came into the room. The cat from last night was in his arms, and it’s green eyes narrowed and blinking slowly. Now that it wasn’t dark, Penny saw that the cat was small, with gray fur, save for the brown coloring around one of its eyes.

 

 

“Hey, kiddo, nice to see you awake,” Daddy said with a small smile. He set the cat onto her bed, and it padded over to her cautiously. “This little guy was fine; he was just knocked out from the impact.”

 

 

“Thanks for saving him,” Penny said, reaching out a small hand to pet the cat. Once she did, the cat began to purr and curled up next to her. “Do you think he has a home? I don’t want to put him back out onto the street.”

 

 

“Yeah, about that,” her daddy cleared his throat, looking down at the cat. “How about he stays here, with you?”

 

 

Penny’s mouth fell open, raising her eyes to stare at her dad. Keep him? As in like a pet? Penny had always asked Mommy to let her keep various cats she found around Cedar Hill, but her mommy had always said no.

 

 

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, I wish we could keep them,” Mommy had said when Penny asked to keep two kittens that had been abandoned by their mother. “But we don’t have the money to afford them. You know that.”

 

 

“How would we buy him food and stuff like that?” Penny now said dejectedly to her father, her heart sinking when she realized they wouldn’t be able to take care of the kitty.

 

 

“Kid, do you even know who I am?” Daddy gave a small chuckle. “Money should always be the very last concern in your life while you’re living with me. I have more than enough to take care of the cat who saved my kiddos.”

 

 

“Thank you,” Penny smiled, continuing to pet the cat. “I love him already.”

 

 

“Hey, while I’m here,” her daddy rubbed the back of his neck, his face getting serious. “I already talked to your brother, but I need to talk to you too.”

 

 

“Okay,” Penny nodded, waiting for him to speak.

 

 

“I want to apologize for losing track of you two yesterday,” Daddy said. “I wasn’t looking out for you as well as I should have, and being your dad, that just doesn’t cut it. I’m still learning how to do this whole… parenting thing, but I promise I’m going to try harder. Okay?”

 

 

“Okay,” Penny said shyly, and her heart swelled with happiness because her daddy wasn’t purposely trying to get rid of them. “You made a mistake, but it’s okay. Mommy made mistakes too.”

 

 

“Did she now?” Daddy raised his eyebrows in surprise.

 

 

“Yeah, all the time,” Penny said. “One time Mommy accidentally left Peter at the grocery store. She made it all the way home, and she didn’t even know until Luke asked where he was.”

 

 

“That makes me feel better,” her daddy grinned. He tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. “Man, you look just like her, and she was so beautiful.”

 

 

They sat there like that for a moment, the only noise the sound of the cat purring.

 

 

“Now your ankle is twisted, so I need you to keep it elevated for today, got it?” Daddy said.

 

 

“Got it,” Penny confirmed.

 

 

“Okay. I’m gonna go—I have some work to do,” Penny's father stood up, walking towards the door. “I’m gonna go tell Peter he can come in here; he wants to see you. Oh, and be thinking about what you want to name the cat so I can order a custom collar, okay?”

 

 

“Okay,” Penny agreed with a smile. “Can you thank Mr. Rhodey for saving us and carrying me home?”

 

 

“Nah kiddo, I’m sure he’ll be up here soon,” Daddy said. “You can tell him yourself.”

 

 

With that, he left, and a minute later Peter came tumbling in, coloring books and crayons in his hands.

 

 

“Daddy said you can’t move around a lot, but he said we can color,” Peter announced, “So we’re gonna color the best picture the world had ever seen!”

 

 

Mr. Rhodey came by later without his War Machine suit, sitting down in a chair next to Penny’s bed.

 

 

“I’m glad to see you so happy,” Mr. Rhodey said. “What happened to you was pretty scary.”

 

 

“Yeah, it was, but it’s okay now.”

 

 

“I’m just thrilled you had this little tiger here to save you,” Mr. Rhodey reached his hand over and rubbed the cat’s head. “He risked a lot to save you-you must be very special to him.”

As if he was listening, the cat stood up and relocated so that he was sitting right next to Penny. His green eyes met Penny’s brown ones, and she couldn’t help but feel like he saved her on purpose. Maybe he did.

 

 

“What are you going to name him?” Peter interjected, looking up from his Captain America coloring book.

 

 

Penny’s fingers ran gently up and down the cat’s back, feeling his soft fur on her skin.

 

 

“I’m gonna name him Luke,” Penny said. “Because Luke always protected us, and now this kitty is gonna protect us instead.”

 

 

“Is Luke the name of your older brother?” it felt weird to her how trusting she was starting to feel towards the man, but it was a good weird.

 

 

“Yeah. I miss him.”

 

 

“Me too,” Peter chimed in, looking back down at his book.

 

 

“You guys should tell your dad this,” Mr. Rhodey suggested. “I’m sure he could pull some strings and have your brother up for a visit.”

 

 

“Maybe, Mr. Rhodey,” Penny nodded her head, but she didn’t feel confident to start making such requests to her father.

 

 

Mr. Rhodey stood up, making his way to the door, but before he left, he turned around, looking at them.

 

 

“Call me Uncle Rhodey, okay? ‘Mr. Rhodey’ is way too formal for me.”

 

 

Penny and Peter both looked up from what they were doing to stare at him. ‘Uncle’ was a word that only family used—it was what they called Uncle Ben.

 

 

“Okay, Uncle Rhodey,” Peter said, and it sounded right to Penny.

 

 

"Hey, Uncle Rhodey? Thanks for saving us," Penny remembered to say. “It was my pleasure. Feel better soon, Pen!” Uncle Rhodey smiled. “And Pete… try not to get crayon on the sheets.”

 

 

With that he left, leaving Penny and Peter with smiles on their faces. Then, Peter looked down at the bedspread, and his smile fell.

 

 

“Penny?”

 

 

“Yeah?”

 

 

“Don’t tell, but I got crayon on your sheets.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

It was late in the night as Ms. Edwards shuffled down the dark hallway in her robe, her slippers sliding on the floor the only noise besides the clock ticking in the living room. She opened the door to Penny’s bedroom, her cold, narrow eyes falling onto the twins, each one sprawled out under the covers with coloring books and crayons all over the place.

 

 

They were sound asleep, dreaming pleasant dreams, and Ms. Edwards reached her hand down to touch Penny’s face.

 

 

Hiss!

 

 

Ms. Edwards stumbled back when she became aware of the cat curled up between Penny and Peter, his green eyes watching her every move. Ms. Edwards scowled when she saw the collar on the cat that read ‘Luke’ and had Miss. Potts’ phone number. Of course, they would give the child a cat.

 

 

It just made her task a lot harder.

 

 

“Oh, shoo, you stupid thing,” Ms. Edwards said under her breath. She tapped the cat’s head with a long, wrinkly finger, and in less than a second, it lowered it’s head, falling asleep.

 

 

She moved her hand back over to Penny’s face, running her fingers across the child’s forehead.

 

 

“Sweet dreams, children,” the wretched old woman whispered. “It won't be long until I get what I deserve.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah i gave Penny a cat. she deserves it tbh. 
> 
> thanks for reading! leave a comment if you'd like, i love hearing from everyone!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surely there were other options than this. Maybe Miss. Pepper would take care of Peter, or at the very least wake Ms. Edwards up herself so neither Penny or Peter would get in trouble. She could have sworn that Uncle Rhodey lived in the tower—maybe she could tell him about Peter being sick. But the truth was that she had no idea where to even begin to look for the Colonel, and she didn’t have the time to figure it out. She could feel Peter’s pain from where she was, and she knew that Peter needed help now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Like most of this fic, this chapter contains abuse of young children. Please be careful if this is something that bothers you.

“Lukey! Dinner!”

Penny stood in the kitchen by the new shiny blue cat bowl, quietly calling the cat who was currently on the windowsill. Beside her, Peter was struggling to carry over the bag of cat food that was easily half his size and probably weighed more at that. Nevertheless, he managed to stumble over and practically drop the bag onto the floor, where Penny used a measuring cup to scoop the food into the bowl.

“Wet food probably wouldn’t be as heavy,” Peter grumbled. They could hear Luke the cat before they could see him, the bell on his collar jingling as he happily trotted into the kitchen. “How do you know how much to give him anyway?”

“Daddy told me to give him a half a cup for breakfast and dinner,” Penny replied, beaming as she watched her kitty munch on his food. It was true—a few weeks ago her father had sat down with her and explained to her how to take care of a cat, and she’d made sure to follow his instructions to the T. “Too much food will make him sick.”

Peter nodded at her explanation before picking the bag up and placing it in its respective place in the pantry. Penny turned her attention from the cat to the living room, where Ms. Edwards was reading in her rocking chair. The old woman hadn’t protested at the presence of Luke and did not seem to be bothered by the jingle of the collar or his constant meows.

No, Ms. Edwards almost seemed afraid of him. She acted like Luke was a hungry tiger ready to pounce on her if she so much as raised her voice at him. So, for the most part, she just ignored him, pretending the cat wasn’t there.

However, Luke being there didn’t stop her from being the mean old woman that she was. Ms. Edwards was still incredibly strict; she used any method necessary to get her point across—her favorite being the wooden spoon. It got to the point where Penny flinched any time the old lady reached for a utensil while cooking her daily meatloaf.

Dinner with their father and Miss. Pepper had become a weekly Sunday occurrence. Sometimes, if they weren’t busy, their daddy would take them for ice cream before dinner, and once he took them to the toy store to pick out a toy. Penny had chosen a cat toy for Luke. Peter had picked out the Iron Man figurine to complete his Avengers collection.

(Daddy seemed to really want Peter to get it, and was able to talk Peter out of choosing another Captain America toy. Penny wasn’t sure how he managed to do that.)

Penny and Peter just enjoyed spending time with their father, even if it was just telling him about their week over dinner. They didn’t need the ice cream and the toys—they just needed his presence. Penny understood that their daddy was extremely busy with being Iron Man and running the company with Miss. Potts; he didn’t have time to sit down with them and watch Finding Nemo with them over and over again until they fell asleep in his arms.

Luckily, Uncle Rhodey did.

They saw a lot of War Machine ever since the Central Park fiasco. He was kind and would listen to Peter talk for ages about Captain America. He would sit down and color with Penny, crayon in one hand while petting Luke with the other.

Penny’s favorite part of being with Uncle Rhodey was all of the stories he would tell about their daddy.

“Did you know that your dad fought an entire alien race with the Avengers, and then took a missile into the alien portal to blow them all up?” Uncle Rhodey would say, and Peter and Penny would stare at him with wide, unbelieving eyes. “He saved an entire city—and the world—that day.” But when they asked their father about it later, he only chuckled and shook his head, chalking it all up to luck.

Penny knew her father was brave. She hoped she would grow up to help people as he did.

Along with Uncle Rhodey, they also saw a lot of their Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Aunt May worked a lot, so sometimes she wouldn’t be able to spend time with them, but Uncle Ben knew how to make up for it. Once, when they were spending the night with their aunt and uncle, and May was working, Uncle Ben drove them in his truck to the outside of New York and stopped in a large field. He put the vehicle in park and put Peter and Penny in the bed where pillows and blankets were surrounding their shivering bodies. For hours, Uncle Ben showed them all the constellations in the sky and pointing out all of the planets and shooting stars, each twin curled up next to him.

That was Penny’s favorite night. She hoped they could do it again sometime.

It had been two months since their mother died and they’d come to live at Stark Tower. Sure, Penny missed her mommy more than anything she’d ever missed before, and there was nothing she would not do to have one more day with her. She dreamed about her all the time, some being dreams and some being nightmares.

She and Peter talked about her all the time. They talked about what they thought she was doing in Heaven, and whether she was watching them or Luke at certain times (their older brother, not the cat, although Penny was quick to assure Luke the cat that Mommy was watching him too.)

Penny sometimes thought about the fact that her mommy didn’t seem to like Daddy, and she would wonder why. Her dad was really nice and even invited them to dinner every Sunday. Aunt May didn’t seem to like him either. Only Uncle Ben seemed to have kind words about their father.

“Tony Stark is a busy man,” Uncle Ben had explained to them once. “He’s so busy, that I think he sometimes has trouble slowing down. It’s not that he doesn’t have time for you, it’s just that he’s never  _had_  to make time for kids like you before. Being a dad is hard, but he’s trying to figure it out because I know deep down he loves you two so much.”

Daddy was still awkward around them and didn’t know how to make conversations. He treated Peter and Penny as if they were friends he hadn’t seen in a really long time—not as his five-year-old kids.

But Penny knew he was trying, and that was enough for her.

* * *

Penny opened her eyes one night when she felt Peter thrashing around beside her. She frowned, lifting herself onto her elbows to try and get a better view of her brother. He was drenched in sweat and moaning softly; his eyes squeezed shut.

“Peter?” Penny reached over and shook her brother's shoulder, now sitting up and fully alert. “Pete, wake up. Peter?”

It took a couple of minutes, but Peter finally opened his bloodshot eyes to look at her.

“I don’t feel good, Penny,” Peter whined softly, tears starting to fall from his eyes.

The fact that he was uncomfortable was apparent, as his face was flushed and even though his body was covered in sweat he was violently shivering. Penny didn’t know what to do. Back in Cedar Hill, whenever one of them was sick, their mother would take care of them until they were all better. But they weren’t allowed to go into Ms. Edwards bedroom for any reason whatsoever; they had found that one out the hard way, unfortunately.

Penny was well aware of the rules. But when she realized she could feel his sadness and fear swirling around her heart, stabbing her soul, she decided that she was willing to risk getting in big trouble to help him. So Penny slid out of bed, making her way to Ms. Edwards’ room. The door was huge and daunting to a five-year-old, and she gulped before reaching up to the doorknob and twisting it, the door opening with a slight creak.

In the darkened room, Penny saw Ms. Edwards’ in her bed. Her chest was rising and falling slowly, signifying that the woman was in a deep sleep. The young girl twisted her fingers, biting her lip as she shuffled closer to the bed.

Surely there were other options than this. Maybe Miss. Pepper would take care of Peter, or at the very least wake Ms. Edwards up herself so neither Penny or Peter would get in trouble. She could have sworn that Uncle Rhodey lived in the tower—maybe she could tell him about Peter being sick. But the truth was that she had no idea where to even begin to look for the Colonel, and she didn’t have the time to figure it out. She could feel Peter’s pain from where she was, and she knew that Peter needed help now.

So she sucked in a deep breath, held her head high, and called Ms. Edwards’ name. Her voice was no more than a whisper at first, but when the old lady didn’t even stir Penny resorted to repeating it louder and louder. Eventually, Ms. Edwards started awake, a hand over her heart—she was clearly startled. Once her wide eyes found Penny standing alone in the middle of her bedroom, they narrowed into slits, becoming colder and colder to the point where Penny felt herself shiver.

“Penelope, what on Earth are you doing?” Ms. Edwards growled. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to enter my room? And especially in the middle of the night!”

“I-I’m sorry,” Penny wasn’t surprised that her voice seemed to have vanished, her volume hardly loud enough to hear—especially for an old woman with hearing issues.

“What was that?” Ms. Edwards’ snapped.

“Ms. Edwards, I’m sorry to wake you, but Peter’s really sick! He’s really hot and sweating, and he’s in a lot of pain,” Penny felt her voice get stronger, to her relief. “You gotta help him, ma’am, because I’m scared that—”

_I’m scared that he’s going to fall asleep and not wake up like my mommy did_ , Penny was about to say, but she held back the words just in time. She knew it was stupid, but she felt like if she said the words out loud something would happen to make them come true.

“I’m scared he won’t be okay,” Penny finished. She looked down, tears starting to burn at the corners of her eyes.  _Don’t cry; you can’t cry right now. Peter need you to be strong_ , she told herself, but she couldn’t help the tear that slipped out of her left eye and dripped onto the carpet. Losing her mother was the saddest thing Penny that had ever happened to her—she couldn’t even fathom losing her brother, her best friend. The boy who pulled funny faces to make her laugh, or who would get in trouble just to keep Penny out of it. “Please.”

Ms. Edwards grumbled, but swung her legs over the edge of the bed, reaching over to switch on the lamp on the bedside table. Penny was afraid she was getting up to hurt her, to punish her because she had broken one of the biggest rules, but to her surprise the old woman walked past her, leaving the room presumably for Peter’s. Penny followed closely, silently vowing to herself that she wouldn’t let anything happen to Peter—even if that meant getting hurt in the process.

She didn’t mind doing that. She knew Peter would do the same for her.

Ms. Edwards approached the room, muttering things under her breath. Her eyes fell on Peter, who was still whimpering while tossing around in the bed. For a minute, the woman didn’t say anything, just putting an old, wrinkled hand on Peter’s forehead. After observing him for a few more minutes, she sighed more out of annoyance than concern.

“Your brother has the flu, Penelope,” Ms. Edwards announced, moving to leave the room. “I’ll give him some medicine. Go back to your bed; I don’t need you getting sick as well.”

Penny felt uneasy, leaving her brother alone with Ms. Edwards, but when the lady came back with a spoonful of Tylenol (Penny knew it was Tylenol and not poison or something, because it came from the same bottle that their mother used to have them take when any of her children were sick), Penny felt it was safe to leave. Besides, Ms. Edwards was throwing her a look that clearly said  _get out of here or else_.

So Penny turned around and left the room, praying that Peter would be okay. She needed him to be okay—there were no other options.

* * *

No matter how hard Penny tried, she couldn’t seem to fall back asleep. Her bed felt so big and empty without the familiar presence of her twin. It had been hours since she had heard Ms. Edwards go back to bed, her door gently closing. Luckily, Peter’s moans and whimpers seemed to have stopped for the most part. She was happy about that until she realized—silence isn’t always a good thing.

What if Ms. Edwards had tricked them, and the medicine had been poison? What if she was angry at Penny for waking her up, and her punishment was killing Peter? If Peter were dead, it would be on her hands, and she didn’t think she could live knowing she had caused the death of the most important person in her life.

Unable to stop the questions, Penny slipped out of bed for the second time that night, her heart racing as she quickly stumbled out of her room and towards Peter’s. The door was open a crack, which was odd because usually bedroom doors were kept shut during the night, which only helped feed her suspicions: Peter was gone.

However, before she could enter the room, the door opened farther inside, revealing Daddy standing in the doorframe.

“Ah shit!” her father gasped, the bad word slipping out when he saw her standing in front of him. “Oh man, Penny, sorry but you scared me, kiddo.”

“Sorry…” Penny whispered, looking down and kicking at the carpet. This was the second time this night she’d been out of bed—surely this time she would be punished for it.

“Hey, it’s cool,” Daddy’s hand had flown to his heart, obviously startled, but then it moved into his hair, running his fingers through his messy brown locks. He was still in his pajamas, which were a pair of sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt. “What’re you doing awake, kid? It’s really late, you know.”

“I was worried about Pete,” Penny confessed, raising her head to watch his face. “And I couldn’t sleep… not alone. W-What are you doing?”

She realized she had no right to ask that question, but she couldn’t help but ask. Right now, all she could think about was Peter and how much pain he had been in.

“JARVIS woke me up and said he was sick, so I’m just checking up on him,” he explained to her. “Do you usually sleep with Peter?” Penny nodded. His expression turned thoughtful at that, glancing back into the dark room. Then it morphed back into sympathy, turning his head back around to her. “Well kiddo, I’m sorry, but you can’t sleep with him tonight—I don’t want you catching what he has.”

“Is-is he okay?” Penny peered behind her daddy, trying to get a glance of Peter—preferably a breathing Peter at that.

“Yeah, he’s gonna be just fine, he’s just gonna have to rest and take it easy the next few days,” Daddy assured her. “But I’m sure he’ll be up and bouncing around like usual soon enough.”   
Penny nodded slowly, and she had to admit that his words did help her feel better. But there was part of her that wouldn’t believe it until she saw it.

“Do you want to take a closer look at him?” her daddy said as if was reading her mind. “Maybe that will help you sleep.” He stuck out his hand, and after a moment's hesitation Penny put her hand in his, her tiny fingers engulfed in his large hand. His grip was firm but gentle, and he led her over to where Penny could get a better look at Peter.

She felt herself start to breathe easier when she saw Peter fast asleep, breathing in and out… in and out… Penny just watched his form rise and fall, grateful to know he was okay for now. His face was still flushed with fever, but his face seemed content.

“See?” Daddy whispered, crouching down, so he was at her height. “He’s doing just fine. Fast asleep—just like you should be.”

“Okay,” was all Penny could say. She knew she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, but she would at least follow orders and stay in her bed until morning.

“Hey, you know,” Daddy seemed to hesitate before continuing with his thought, “if you can’t sleep, you can come sleep in Pepper and I’s bed. Only if you’d like, of course, it might help you not feel so alone.”

Penny thought about his offer for a minute, but once she realized how long the night would be if she weren’t able to sleep, she found herself accepting his offer. Almost immediately as she said yes, she felt her eyes start to droop, her lids becoming heavier and heavier by the second.

“Alright,” Daddy nodded, partly to himself. He must have noticed just how tired she was, because he let go of her hand and scooped her up into his strong arms, straightening up and walking out of Peter’s room. The rhythm of his steps lulled her into a light doze, her head resting on his shoulder as he carried her into the elevator. “JARVIS, floor 46, please.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Eventually, they made it to Daddy’s room, and Penny was lowered onto a mattress and pillow, a warm blanket placed up to her shoulders. She felt herself relax, curling up and sinking deeper into the bed.

“Is she alright?” Penny heard Miss. Pepper whisper from beside her.

“She’s fine,” Daddy assured the CEO. “Apparently she and Pete sleep in the same bed, but since he’s sick right now… you know.”

“And is Peter okay?”

“Well, he will be. I think the nanny gave him some medicine, but he still had a high fever. I gave him some water and stuff. That’s what you’re supposed to do, right?”

“That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do,” Miss. Potts whispered, humor in her voice. Silence. Then, “I told you that you’d get the hang of this.”

Penny felt Miss. Pepper’s soft, gentle fingers start to run through her hair.

“I hope you’re right,” Daddy said with a sigh. Penny felt the mattress sink down on the other side of her, and soon Penny was sandwiched between him and Miss. Pepper. She let herself fall asleep, feeling safer than she had in a long, long time.

* * *

Of course, as always, that feeling of safety didn’t last. The nightmare took hold of her, gripping her tight and refusing to let go. This time, Penny saw Ms. Edwards holding her dreaded favorite weapon, the wooden spoon, and approaching a sleeping Peter. However, the spoon morphed into a large butcher knife, and Penny wanted to scream at her brother to wake up, but for some reason, she couldn’t vocalize words, nor could she run and defend Peter, her feet stuck to the carpet below.

Ms. Edwards turned back to look at her, an evil sneer on her face.

“This is what happens when you don’t follow the rules, Penelope. People get hurt.”

She turned back to Peter and suddenly was plunging the knife, the blade moving in slow motion as it approached Peter’s unmoving figure and—

“Penny, wake up, honey!”

Penny’s eyes snapped open, now present in the land of the living, and she thrust herself into a sitting position, tears spilling from her eyes. A light turned on, and Penny glanced over to see Miss. Pepper was sitting up as well, having reached over and switched her bedside lamp on. Penny looked back down at the blanket, the sobs continuing to wrack her small body as she realized how much trouble she was in. Would Daddy—or worse, Miss. Pepper—hit her for waking them up?

“I-I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I-I won’t do it again, I promise, please don’t—please don’t hit me, I’m sorry, I’m s-so sorry!” Penny begged, hiding her face in her hands. Whatever they were about to do to her, she didn’t want to watch.

To her surprise, she heard Miss. Pepper gasp from beside her.

“Penny, kiddo, what?” Daddy said, his tone full of pure bewilderment. Penny glanced up at him to see that there was no anger on his face—only confusion, a deep frown on his face. “Why—why would you even think…what?”

Penny’s sobs slowed down as she too begun to feel confused. Didn’t he know?

“When we break the rules, we get in trouble,” Penny stated to him as if it was the most obvious fact in the world. To her, it was. She sniffled, tears still falling down her face. It was silent for a moment, and Penny saw Daddy and Miss. Pepper look at each other.

“What kind of trouble, sweetheart?” Miss. Pepper urged her on, suspicion laced into her kind tone. “What happens when you break the rules?”

“Sometimes we lose lunch or dinner, other times we get hit with the wooden spoon,” Penny explained. She started to feel herself get nervous; why did she have to explain this to them?   
Miss. Pepper’s hand flew to her mouth, her eyes on Daddy. Penny glanced over at her father to see his face twisted with anger, his right eye twitching, and now she knows; he remembered, so now he was angry with her and was going to hurt her. She burst into more tears, looking back down at the blanket and squeezing her eyes shut.

“Who does this, kid?” Daddy’s tone was weird, and when she looked back at him she saw his expression had softened, but his eye was still twitching. Penny suddenly wondered if she had said something wrong, so she just shook her head, not wanting to say. “Please, honey, I need to know: who’s hitting you?”

“Ms. Edwards,” Penny answered him, her voice no louder than a whisper, staring at her daddy’s arc reactor in his chest because that was better than meeting his eyes. Surely telling the truth would be better than lying. Right?

“Oh, my God… Tony…” Miss. Pepper breathed from beside her.

Daddy raised a hand and Penny flinched, but all he did was gently use his thumb to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. He did his best to hide his anger, but Penny could see his movements were stiff with rage.

“Penny, honey, look at me,” Daddy whispered, and Penny lifted her eyes to meet his. There were so many emotions in them that she couldn’t pick out just one. “I will never,  _ever_  hit you, or hurt you, or your brother, in any way whatsoever. And no one else will if I can help it.”

“Really?” Penny was slightly shocked by his words, a frown falling onto her face.

“Really,” Daddy echoed. “Shoot I—I had no idea, Pen, I just… this is all my fault, I—”

He stopped whatever he was going to say, taking a deep breath. Then, he pulled her into his lap, holding her close to his chest, continuing to stroke her cheek with his thumb.

“You’re safe now, okay? You’re never going to see that woman again, not if I can help it. I gotcha, you’re okay…”

Penny started to cry more, but this time it was out of relief. He wasn’t going to hurt her; in fact, he was going to save her and Peter from Ms. Edwards!

Of course, he was. He was Iron Man, wasn’t he? He was a superhero, and that’s what superheroes do. They save people like Penny and Peter.

Exhausted from all of the crying and the lack of sleep, Penny leaned her head against her father’s chest, feeling the slightly fast beat of his heart. With that, she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this chapter was my longest one yet holy shit
> 
> Thanks to everyone for the support—seeing the comments and the kudus never fail to make my day!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are you a mother, Ms. Edwards?” Tony’s words made her frown, wondering where the man was going with this.
> 
> “Yes, yes I am,” Ms. Edwards answered, not turning to look at him. “Two daughters and a son—they moved out a long time ago.”
> 
> “Then you must know how it feels to find out that you’ve been allowing them to be terrorized by the monster that lives under their bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Like pretty much every chapter in this story, there are mentions of child abuse. Please use caution :)

It had been a long time since Tony had been in contact with Mary Parker.

 Although back then he had the reputation of being a playboy who jumped from woman to woman and had more one-night-stands than one would think, he remembered being awed by Mary’s presence, and so they saw each other a lot more than once. Mary had been a special woman who was confident and kind, and Tony respected her, knowing that there was more to her than met the eye.

So when Tony was holding Penny in his arms, her small, shaking body passed out from all the crying, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d let Mary Parker down.

 He’d allowed her children to get abused by someone in his own home. Tony wondered if she would ever forgive him for that.

 He knows that he wouldn’t.

 Penny’s eyes had just fluttered shut, her cheek smudged against his chest. She was so tiny, Tony observed—so small and, dare he say, precious. A strange, unfamiliar emotion overcame him, and it wasn’t the anger or sadness he had just been feeling five minutes ago. He decided to put a pin in that—after all, he had bigger fish to fry.

“Pep… I can’t believe—” Tony choked on his words. “Damnit, May Parker was right. They aren’t safe here.”

“We’re all at fault, Tony,” Pepper reminded him gently. Her eyes were shining with tears. “Not just you.”

“What do I do now?”

“Well first, you deal with the nanny,” Pepper let out a humorless laugh.

“Obviously, Pep. But then what? Do I send them to Ben and May Parker? Or the Watson’s—the kids mentioned they want to go back to Cedar Hill.”

As Tony went over the options, his gaze rested on the top of Penny’s head as he continued to rock the girl back and forth in his arms slowly. To his surprise, he found that he didn’t want to let go of her, didn’t want to lose her to the world. Once he gave them up, everything would go back to normal, but he didn’t _want_ things to back to normal.

That unfamiliar emotion he had just been feeling—was that _love?_ The _unconditional love_ that a parent felt for their children, a love that would never weaken even if they committed the worst possible crime? He would never have guessed that the feeling would come so damn quickly, but it did.

But Tony knew that he had to let them go. He wasn’t the father they deserved, and he knew that because Mary Parker’s kids deserve the best.

“Tony…” Pepper’s voice was soft. “You made a mistake. We all did, but mistakes happen.”

“This isn’t—this isn’t leaving your kid at the damn grocery store, Pepper, this is hurting them badly and it being your fault,” Tony refuted. “I mean, who even thought for a minute that I, Tony fucking Stark, would be remotely a good father? Who had that genius idea?”

“Mary Parker obviously had that idea. You were in her will,” Pepper reminded him. “Being a good parent isn’t measured by the mistakes you make. It’s measured by what you do to fix said mistake.”

A pause filled the room, silence washing over them to where the only sound Tony could hear was the sound of Penny’s breathing.

“I gotta fix this,” Tony nodded. He had to—he was Tony Stark. He could fix anything. He glanced down at the girl in his arms who was fast asleep. Suddenly, it hit him that maybe Penny was safe, but Peter indeed was not. He was still downstairs with the witch.

_Shit._

“I need to go get Peter. Can you take her?” Pepper nodded, and Tony gently transferred Penny into Pepper’s arms. His daughter stirred at the movement, but stayed asleep, both adults sighing in relief. Tony hopped out of bed and all but ran to the elevator, panic rising as he realized just how long Peter had been all alone downstairs, and especially in his current state.

Tony tapped his foot anxiously on the elevator floor as it descended, the severity of the situation crashing down on him. He pulled out his phone and shot a quick text to Rhodey, his fingers shaking as he tried to type. When the elevator doors opened, he practically jumped out of it, racing down the hall to Peter’s room.

To his relief, the room was empty, save for a small, fever-stricken boy.

He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting—the woman standing over Peter with a knife or something along those lines—but he had to remind himself that sometimes abuse wasn’t always visible to the outside. Obviously, it wasn’t, or they wouldn’t be having issues in the first place.

Peter was still shivering from the fever, curled into himself and his eyes twitching as he slept. The last thing Tony wanted to do was wake him, but when he sat down on the bed next to him, the kid’s eyes fluttered open.

“Hey there, squirt,” Tony whispered, stroking the boy’s curls with his fingers.

“Hi, Daddy…” Peter breathed out, watching him under heavy eyelids.

“I’m gonna carry you upstairs to my floor, okay?” God, the kid was so small. How could anyone hurt a kid so little and cute and innocent? It made him angry, but he was holding it together—for now.

“Why?”

“Because you and Penny aren’t safe here,” Tony answered. He scooped Peter into his arms, blanket and all, and lifted himself into a standing position. Peter just burrowed into Tony’s chest, brown doe eyes closing once more. Tony was almost positive his son was asleep because there was no noise from him as he carried him into the elevator, until he heard the small, weak voice.

“Is Penny okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine, buddy,” Tony remembered the way Penny had sobbed in his arms and wondered if his words were lies. “You’re both safe and sound.”

Penny was still fast asleep in his bed, curled up in Pepper’s arms. Tony set Peter down on the couch in the corner of the bedroom, putting a pillow under his head and making sure he was tucked into the blanket.

“You can go back to sleep, Pep,” Tony said, looking up from Peter to where Pepper was watching him. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I have a few more things to take care of.”

* * *

 

The sun was just beginning to rise over the New York City skyline as Ms. Edwards left her bedroom the next morning. To her surprise, the place was abnormally quiet—usually, the twins were making some sort of noise, like watching TV and playing with Peter’s Avenger action figures. Were they staying at their aunt and uncle’s apartment? She couldn’t remember; her memory had gotten worse in her old age.

The living room was empty, looking as it had when she had gone to bed last night—clean and tidy. She smiled to herself as she realized she had the morning off, away from the spoiled brats. However, her smile faltered when she entered her kitchen.

Tony Stark was sitting at the kitchen table in his pajamas, his body leaning back in the chair and his arms crossed to his chest.

“Mr. Stark!” The old woman gasped. Her employer usually rarely came down to this floor, and he certainly never came down when his children weren’t there.

“Ms. Edwards,” Tony nodded, his face blank and holding no emotion whatsoever. He looked tired, the bags under his eyes faint but still there.

“How may I help you, Mr. Stark? Can I get you a coffee or some breakfast?” Ms. Edwards moved further into the kitchen towards the coffee pot.  

“I could use a cup of coffee,” Tony said, his gaze still trained on the wall in front of him. “Afterall, I was up all night—we were dealing with some pretty serious stuff.”

Ms. Edwards hummed in response, turning on the coffee pot and filling it with water and coffee grounds.

“Are you a mother, Ms. Edwards?” Tony’s words made her frown, wondering where the man was going with this.

“Yes, yes I am,” Ms. Edwards answered, not turning to look at him. “Two daughters and a son—they moved out a long time ago.”

“Then you must know how it feels to find out that you’ve been allowing them to be terrorized by the monster that lives under their bed.”

Silence. Ms. Edwards watched as the brown liquid started to drip down into the mug.

“I never allowed them to believe in such things,” she said. “The mind can be harmful to a young child.”

“But what if it’s not their mind playing tricks on them?”

Ms. Edwards froze, pursing her thin, dry lips together as she replaced the now full mug with an empty one, letting the hot coffee fill that one as well.

“What are you getting at, Mr. Stark?”

“Ben Parker was right about one thing—Peter and Penny are amazing kids, and they deserve the entire world,” Tony shifted his gaze to look at her as he spoke. Ms. Edwards brought both coffee filled mugs over to the table, placing one of them into Tony’s hands. “And they certainly don’t deserve the abuse they’ve been under the past few months.”

Suddenly, the mood in the room became hostile.

“Are you suggesting that I’m abusing your children?”  Ms. Edwards scowled, shaking her head.

“Not suggesting, accusing more like. Penny told me everything.”

“And are you really going to listen to what a five-year-old tells you?” Ms. Edwards scoffed. “Penelope is not an easy child to deal with. Losing her mother turned her into a sad, difficult girl. Of course, she would say such things to try and slander me. You cannot honestly believe—”

“I do believe her,” Tony snapped, bringing his coffee mug back down onto the table with a slight bang. “I will always believe the things she and her brother tell me, because I trust them to be honest with me.”

The kitchen went silent for a moment, Ms. Edwards closing her lips once more. Tony’s voice was still faintly echoing off of the walls.

“But yes, of course, I realize that kids can sometimes over exaggerate, and I’m also aware that I’m making a huge-ass accusation,” Tony continued. “But JARVIS doesn’t exaggerate. Don’t you know that this entire Tower is always on surveillance? I have mountains of evidence stacked up against you. Enough to make sure you’re thrown in prison and kept there for the rest of your life, and then some.”

“That is not abuse, Stark,” Ms. Edwards shook her head. “It’s discipline. Every child needs to have some in their lives, or else they’ll turn out as you did. It’s a shame Howard died when he did; you could have turned into a very respectable man.”

Tony’s face flooded with anger at the mention on his father, his eyes narrowed into slits.

“My father’s parenting _was_ the reason I turned out so fucked up,” his voice was quiet but laced with rage. “I will not let you be the reason Peter and Penny turn out like me. Honey Bear, now!”

All at once, a few police officers entered the kitchen, Rhodey following behind them. The police officers handcuffed the old woman, reciting her rights while she protested. Tony didn’t answer her protests, only watching her calmly while sipping his coffee.

“You will regret this, Stark!” Ms. Edwards screeched as the officers dragged her away. “Those children need me! You will ruin their lives just by touching them, do you hear me?”

Eventually, her voice got quieter and quieter as she was taken out of the kitchen and onto the elevator. Rhodey sighed, sitting down where Ms. Edwards had previously sat.

“I’ve gotta say, I’m not shocked,” Rhodey admitted, his face grim. “There was always something about that woman that didn’t sit right with me.”

“I just don’t know what to do now,” Tony rubbed his face in his hands, the tiredness catching up to him. He’d gone without sleeping for way longer than this before, so why was he so tired? “How do I tell May Parker?”

“You just… tell her the truth,” Rhodey shrugged. “Tell her you’re sorry and that you’ll never let it happen again. Besides, you’re not the one they should blame, for the most part at least. You didn’t know what was happening, Tones.”

Tony didn’t believe his friends’ words—he knew that he was mostly to blame for all of this. Maybe not directly, but still. But the thought of losing his kids twisted his stomach into a knot because _he didn't_ _want to let them go._ The feeling surprised him for some reason because he had never thought of himself wanting to be a father, even when he had found out about Peter and Penny. He just needed another chance, one more try to get this right.

* * *

 

Tony put his all into that chance. His first order of business? Getting Peter healthy again. It took another day to get rid of the flu that his son was suffering from, and so they spent that entire day on the couch in the living room watching Disney movies. When the kids had first moved in, Tony had bought almost every Disney movie there was to buy, and when he told Peter to pick what he wanted to watch his eyes had gone wide.

“There’s so many…” Peter had whispered, bundled up in his blanket while leaning against Tony. Tony eventually put his arm around the boy, letting him cuddle into his side. Peter eventually picked _Hercules_ , but halfway through he ended up falling asleep.

Penny was another story. She had slept in later than usual because of all the commotion of last night, but when she woke up, she spent the whole day in the living room, either watching the movie intensely or breaking her attention away to color for a bit. She was quiet, but Tony couldn’t figure out if she was shy or just… like that. Tony felt a smile take over his face as he watched the little girl play with her cat, gently reaching out to pet him and giggling when Luke’s tail brushed against her face.

Unlike Peter, she kept to herself. That was just fine, but he couldn’t help but hope that she would open up eventually. It would be a long road, Tony realized, but when she proudly presented one of her drawings to him that night, he felt like they were already making progress.

The drawing was a picture of a bunch of stick figures standing in an open grass area, the sun shining down on them from the corner of the piece of white printer paper.

“That’s Pete… that’s me…  that’s Miss. Pepper, that’s Uncle Rhodey… and that’s you,” Penny explained, pointing to each stick figure when she said their respective names. All the stick figures were holding hands, and Tony had to suppress a chuckle when he realized she had drawn him shorter than both Rhodey and Pepper. What did that mean? Surely he wasn’t that short… right?

“This is so good, Pen,” Tony praised her, and she beamed with happiness. Tony decided that was his favorite look on her, and he wanted to see it more often. “Can I put it on the fridge?” When she nodded her head yes, Tony clipped it to the fridge using a magnet, stepping back to look at it in the better lighting. And if his heart swelled with happiness at seeing the Peter and Penny stick figures both holding hands with the Tony stick figure, well, that was his business.

Peter got better fast, and soon he was up and running around like himself. It had been two days since Ms. Edwards had been fired, and Tony had been working on something on the other end of the floor while Penny had been coloring and Peter had been sleeping.

“I have something to show you guys,” Tony told his kids as they sat at the breakfast table. They currently had a pile of hot, steaming chocolate chip pancakes on their plates, because that was one of the only things Tony knew how to cook, Peter’s drenched in syrup.

“Is it Captain America, Daddy?” Peter guessed, eyes hopeful, his mouth full of pancake.

“No buddy, sorry,” Tony shook his head. He made a mental note to talk to Steve about coming to the tower for a little bit so Peter could meet him—he knew the boy would probably faint when he saw his hero.

Peter and Penny still ate at a quick pace, obviously excited about seeing what their father wanted to show them. Once their plates were cleared, Tony led them down a hallway close to the living room and his and Pepper’s room. He pushed open a door, stepping aside so they could get a better look.

Inside was a huge room, one half painted pink and the other painted blue. There were two twin beds with a huge window in the middle, a nightstand with a lamp on the side of each bed. One bed had Captain America sheets and covers, and the other bed had pink blankets and purple sheets. On the pink bed, Luke the cat snoozed, sprawled out at the foot of the bed. Lined against the walls were all their toys from their old floor, including Penny’s dolls and Peter’s Avengers action figures.

“This is your new room,” Tony explained to them, watching their jaws drop to the floor. “There’s another room right next door for when you guys want to have seperate rooms, but until then you guys will be sharing this one. I assumed that’s what you wanted.”

Penny and Peter entered the room, exploring a little bit to see what all was there.

“Pep and I are right down the hall,” Tony said, leaning against the doorframe. “You’re not going to have a nanny anymore, so I’m gonna clear up my schedule a little so I can be here more with you guys.”

“Daddy, I love it!” Peter cried, launching himself at Tony’s legs and hugging them tight. “It’s my favorite room ever!”

Peter let go almost as quickly as he latched on, and went back to browsing through his toys. Penny stepped towards Tony, twisting her hands behind her back as she smiled up at him, her brown eyes happy under her long, dark eyelashes.

“Thank you, Daddy,” Penny said quietly, hugging his legs the same way Peter had, just a lot more carefully. “I love it a lot too.”

“I’m glad you like it, honey,” Tony put his hand on her head, messing up her hair a little bit playfully before smoothing it back down with his fingers. She let go,

“Hey Daddy, do you wanna play Avengers?” Peter called from the other side of the room, the box of toys in front of him. He bent down and picked up a red and gold action figure. “You can be Iron Man.”

Tony went sat down in front of the box of action figures, taking the Iron Man doll from Peter’s hands. Peter picked up Captain America before rummaging through the box some more.

“Penny, come play! You can be Black Widow,” Peter held out the Black Widow toy towards his sister. She hesitated for a moment, but ended up taking the doll from him.

“Can I be Hawkeye too?” Penny requested, peering into the box but not touching. 

“Why would you wanna be Hawkeye? All he does is shoot arrows,” Peter said, wrinkling his nose, and Tony couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He couldn’t wait to tell Clint the next time he saw the archer—his expression would be priceless.

Tony knew that it wouldn’t be easy to reverse the abuse Ms. Edwards had inflicted on them—there would probably be nightmares and crying and all around sadness. But he would be there to help them, even by doing something as small as playing with them when life got tough.

Tony knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he would be damned if he wasn’t going to do everything in his power to fix them and to fix himself. He was Tony Stark. He could fix anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the feedback everyone! It means so much to me that y'all are enjoying this, and I hope I can continue to live up to your expectations! :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m glad our daddy didn’t die,” she said, batting her eyelashes.
> 
> “Yeah, me too,” Peter chimed in.
> 
> Tony opened his mouth to respond to that, but before he could JARVIS cut in.
> 
> “Boss, Steve Rogers has requested your presence in the Avengers conference room—he says it is of utmost importance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're nearing the end... of this book, that is ;)
> 
> Seriously, the constant support from you guys is so amazing, and I cherish every single comment and kudo. Y'all are the best!

Being a parent wasn’t as easy as one would think it would be. Tony found that out the hard way. Although Peter and Penny were great kids—practically angels in his book—kids were always a handful in one way or another. They required a lot of attention and care and awareness because one wrong move and something terrible could happen. Luckily, Tony found himself improving at his new job of being a parent every day. He learned how to talk to them, how to get through to them and teach them in ways that they were able to understand.

They were easy to teach, however. Peter and Penny were smart kids, smarter than the average five-year-old. Tony knew that he shouldn’t be surprised; they were _his_ kids after all. He was the man that got into MIT when he was fifteen and had built his own Iron Man suit out of scraps in a cave in Afghanistan—so it wasn’t far off to assume that the kids were able to process and take in knowledge at a fast rate.

They could read fairly advanced books for their age, as well as build LEGO sets pretty quickly. He bought Peter a Star Wars LEGO set the other day, and with his sister’s help, they were able to finish it in under two hours. Tony couldn’t help but be proud of that accomplishment, and he made sure to brag to Pepper about it that night in bed.

“First is LEGO sets, the next will be advanced coding,” Tony said as he stared up at the ceiling, only half joking. “Maybe I can get them to fix whatever went wrong with DUM-E.”

“You will _not,”_ Pepper halted his thoughts right in their tracks, rolling her eyes. She was sitting up against the pillows, a novel open in her hands. “At least get them through kindergarten, then start them on coding.”

“Shit, I forgot that I have to send them to school next year,” Tony frowned, his eyebrows furrowing together. It was January, meaning next August it would be time for them to start their first year of schooling. It made him sick, thinking about sending his children to a place where he couldn’t physically protect them. “Do I have to, Pep? Maybe I’ll teach them myself. Homeschooling is a great alternative, you know. What’s the kindergarten curriculum again? I think I skipped that grade.”

“Tony, I think it would be good for them to go to an actual school. One with other kids that they can interact with—they could stand to make friends with other preschoolers besides you.”

“Hey!”

“Tony, yesterday you left a meeting with investors because you wanted to take a nap,” Pepper reminded him with a pointed look. “Here’s what I’ll say: they’re your kids, so if you want to homeschool them, go for it. But I think going to school with other kids would greatly benefit them and their social skills. We can look and find the best elementary school in the state of New York, one that’s close by and has a good rep. I can also ask Emily Osborn where she’s sending Harry the next time I see her.”

Tony made a face at that last part, hating the idea of his kids going to school with Norman Osborn’s son. Yeah, that was _not_ happening.

“Also,” Pepper continued, returning back to her book. “There is nothing wrong with DUM-E. He’s just… special. Don’t make fun of him.”

For the time being, Tony decided to put thoughts about kindergarten aside, instead opting to make a decision when the time to determine came closer.

They fell into a routine as the days turned into weeks. Peter and Penny were both early risers so they would turn on cartoons in the living room until either Tony or Pepper woke up and gave them breakfast. Then, they would come down to his personal lab and play with their toys in a designated corner Tony had previously set up while he worked on new designs. Sometimes, if there was an important meeting Tony just _had_ to attend, Rhodey would come and spend some time with them. His best friend sure was popular with his kids to Tony’s dismay, with Peter cheering when the man entered the room and a huge smile donning Penny’s little face. He had a sneaking suspicion it was because Rhodey often gave them treats like soda and cookies, but he didn’t mind.

Anything to make his kiddos happy.

Once a week, Happy took the twins to their aunt and uncles apartment in Queens where they would spend the night. Every time Tony’s heart twisted when he would watch Peter and Penny clamber into the black SUV, their little backpacks looking quite large on them, but he always reminded himself that they were safe with May and Ben and that his kids loved spending time with them. Besides, he did have to appreciate having his alone time with Pepper. It was something they didn’t get a lot of those days.

Sometimes, he felt guilty that he had thrust this change in lifestyle on Pepper—she had become a mother figure to kids that weren’t even hers. But then one night he overheard his girlfriend on the phone with her mother, describing Peter and Penny to her and telling stories about them and Tony realized that maybe he wasn’t the only one who was utterly head-over-heels for the little doe-eyed five-year-olds.

They weren’t hard to fall in love with, Tony thought one morning as he entered the living room one morning to see Peter and Penny curled up on the couch watching Paw Patrol. Peter was clutching his Captain America action figure as his eyes were glued to the TV. Penny had a stuffed cat in her arms, courtesy of her Uncle Ben, but she was less focused on the TV than her brother, her gaze moving upwards to meet Tony’s. She smiled—God, Tony loved that smile.

“Hi, Daddy,” Penny greeted him, and Peter’s eyes left the TV and his body twisted on the couch to look at him.

“Morning, kiddies,” Tony walked over to stand behind the couch, gently ruffling their hair—one hand for one head. They giggled at that, Penny reaching up to playfully swat his hand away, but Peter didn’t seem to care that his hair looked like even more of a mess than it already had. Tony ran his fingers through his son’s hair, trying to tame it the best he could. “What are we having for breakfast?”

That wasn’t a great question. Tony was horrible at cooking, so the best he could make them was toast and—on occasion—Mac and Cheese. Pepper did most of the cooking, but she was currently in California for a conference with Happy, so there was a lack of options for him to offer.

“Can I have Cocoa Puffs?” Penny asked sweetly, hugging her stuffed animal close to her body.

“And can I have Fruit Loops?” Peter requested, a grin on his face.

“Your wishes are my command,” Tony waved his arm and bowed, making the kids giggle again. “One bowl of Cocoa Puffs and one bowl of Fruit Loops coming right up!”

He left the kids in the living room and went into the kitchen, getting down two bowls and moving towards the pantry. On his way, he glanced at Luke the cat, who was perched on the kitchen bar and staring at him.

“I feel like you’re judging me,” Tony muttered, even though he knew that the cat wouldn’t be able to understand what he was saying. Luke meowed, licking his paw and rubbing it behind his ears.

He went back to the living room with the bowls of cereal, walking slowly, so he didn’t get milk all over the carpet. Since it was a Saturday, the kids got to eat breakfast in the living room instead of the kitchen so they could watch their cartoons while eating.

However, when he made it into the living room, he noticed that only Peter was still on the couch. Tony frowned, setting the bowls on the coffee table and looking around the room. He found Penny across the room, staring intently at a bunch of picture frames sitting on a shelf.

“Hey Pen, whatcha doing?” Tony asked, walking over to where she was.

“Who’s that, Daddy?” Penny pointed at the picture glancing up at him with her big brown eyes. Tony followed her finger to a picture of him and his mother, Maria, when he was about seven years old.

“That’s my mother,” Tony squatted down, so he was at her height, his eyes on the picture. It was a picture of him at 2nd-grade graduation—a stupid, meaningless feat and Howard hadn’t even bothered to show up. But his mother came, as proud as any other parent that day. “I guess that would make her your grandmother.”

“She’s pretty,” Penny said shyly, still looking at the picture.

“Yeah, she was, wasn’t she?” Tony felt a smile grow onto his face, and he turned his attention to his daughter, tucking a piece of brown hair behind her ear. “You look kinda like her, you know.”

“Where is she?” Peter joined the conversation, hopping up from where he sat eating his Fruit Loops to look at come look at the picture.

“She died in a car crash with my father a long time ago,” Tony said. Peter, the ultimate cuddle bug, leaned into Tony’s side, resting his head on his shoulder. Tony wrapped an arm around his son, pulling him close.

“Your mommy died like our mommy died?” Penny’s eyes were sad.

“Yeah, she did.”

“I’m glad our daddy didn’t die,” she said, batting her eyelashes.

“Yeah, me too,” Peter chimed in.

Tony opened his mouth to respond to that, but before he could JARVIS cut in.

“Boss, Steve Rogers has requested your presence in the Avengers conference room—he says it is of utmost importance.” Tony stood up with a sigh and looked down at his kids.

“Sorry guys, but Spangles needs me for whatever reason. Why don’t you two go back to watching cartoons and eating your breakfast?”

“Are you going to go see the Avengers?” Peter gasped, his mouth falling open.

“Yeah, buddy, I am,” Tony chuckled, and shook his head as his son gave him a pleading look. “I can’t take you with me right now, it’s too important. I promise you’ll be able to meet them one day, though.”

“Pinky promise?” Peter stuck out his pinky, a serious look on his face.

“Pinky promise,” Tony agreed, linking his pinky with Peter’s. “Now don’t, under any circumstances, leave this room. If it’s an emergency, tell JARVIS to get me. Okay?”

His kids gave their word, and with one last look at them, he got into the elevator. Steve had better have a good reason to pull him away from his family like that.

* * *

 

Turns out, Steve did have a pretty decent reason.

The US military was reporting a foreign, likely hostile, entity coming into Earth’s orbit and right on the outskirts of the New York/Pennsylvania border. Steve had the news on, where CNN was reporting live on the scene.

“From what the cameras are able to pick up, these creatures have wings and can fly,” Steve explained from where he stood next to the TV. He was in regular clothes, his gray t-shirt tight against his bulging muscles.

“They look like alien dinosaurs,” Clint said from where he was sat at the conference table. Along with Clint, Tony and Steve, the Avengers who were on call were Natasha and Thor, with Bruce at a science conference somewhere in the UK and Rhodey on military duty—he was probably dealing with the current threat right now.

“What is a dinosaur?” Thor asked, looking confused.

“It’s something that's really old, like Capsicle,” Tony answered the demigod with a smirk.

“Tony, guys, please, let’s focus—” Steve protested, but the conversation had already gone too far to stop it.

“Steve, are you a dinosaur?” Thor frowned, looking up at the TV. “Are those alien “dinosaurs” your friends?”

“No, they are _not—”_

“Yes, he is, and they are. Cap, tell your friends to stand down,” Tony leaned back in his chair, enjoying watching the team leader struggle like this. Steve just sighed and put his face in his hands, looking tired already.

“It doesn’t matter what they look like—they are an alien life force, and we need to do everything in our power to keep them from reaching NYC,” Steve continued slowly, trying not to set off another side conversation. “Since there’s not a lot of buildings out there, I’m assuming that the majority of the fight will take place in the air. Tony and Thor, we’re going to be relying pretty heavily on you.”

Tony nodded out of instinct before it hit him—he couldn't go. No one was watching Peter and Penny.

“Wait, Cap, I don’t think I can do this one,” Tony said, somewhat apologetically. “I don’t have anyone to watch the twins.”

The team stared at him blankly, and it dawned on him that none of them knew about Penny and Peter yet.

“The who?” Steve voiced what everyone looked like they wanted to ask.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys: a lady I was with some years ago died recently, and her five-year-old twins are mine,” Tony explained. “A few paternity tests were taken and bing bang boom, I’m a dad with daddy issues.”

He realized it sounded crazy, so he let them process the information for a second.

“Are you messing with us?” Natasha frowned, looking skeptical.

“Nope,” Tony said, popping the ‘p,’ “Their names are Peter and Penny, and I don’t have anyone to babysit on call. Not anyone that I trust that is.”

“Well, that’s… new,” even Captain America seemed at a loss for words. “I just… I need you in the air. How about… Barton, Romanoff, could you watch them?”

“What?” Clint, Natasha, and Tony all said at the same time. Natasha’s voice was flat, as in _are you kidding me?_ Clint was just sputtering, and Tony was downright defensive.

“You say you need someone you trust,” Steve explained his reasoning, “There’s probably no one safer than Clint and Natasha.”

“I need a sixteen-year-old teenager to watch them, not two top-notch spy assassins!” Tony cried.

“I didn’t go through all that field training to be Stark’s personal babysitter,” Clint protested.

“Steve, this is the worst idea you’ve ever had,” Natasha said, her ice cold eyes narrowed.

“Guys, it’s just this once,” Steve argued, a hand resting on the conference table. “New York really needs Iron Man out there for this one. Please. You don’t have to frolic in the meadows with them—all you need to do it make sure they don’t die. Okay?”

There were three consecutive sighs. And then there were two “fine”’s, and one "fine, but only if Barton goes frolicking in the meadow" and Steve looked happy that he’d won that argument.

“Alright, it’s settled. Stark, show Clint and Natasha where the kids are. The rest of you—well, the only one left is Thor I guess—Thor, suit up!”

“Sir Captain of America, I am always in my battle armor,” Thor announced, Mjölnir already in his hand. “It is our normal dress back on Asgard.”

“Fine,” Steve muttered, and he left the conference room, mumbling under his breath things like “difficult teammates” and “why won’t they just listen” and “I should’ve stayed under the ice for at least fifty more years.”

* * *

 

If there was one thing that made Natasha Romanoff uncomfortable, it was children. Perhaps it was the fact that they were so innocent—the complete opposite of her and the red in her ledger. How did you converse with a child that didn’t know what bloodshed was, or a child who believed that the world was a world where the bad guys always lost, or a child who thought that there was always a fine line between said bad guys and good guys?

“He does not, Peter.”

Natasha heard the sounds of two little voices arguing when they made it to Stark’s personal floor and felt herself cringe. God, this was _not_ in her contract.

“Yes, he does! You can see it in his eyes, Penny,” that was the little boy.

“No, he doesn’t! Stop saying that in front of him; you’re gonna hurt his feelings!”

They entered the room just in time to see the little girl start to cry. She was on the couch, her feet a dangling over the edge but a long way from the floor. The little boy looked the opposite of mean—he looked apologetic, his eyebrows furrowed as he watched his sister start to cry.

“Daddy?” Penny looked at Stark, her face red and her eyes wet as tears fell down her cheeks.

“Penny, what’s the matter, sweetheart?” Stark sat down next to her and put the girl in his lap, brushing her tears away with his thumb, and Natasha couldn’t help but be surprised at the level of parental affection the genius was giving the child. It was so unlike him in so many ways but… people can change, right?

“Peter said that Luke doesn’t seem like a normal kitty,” Penny gasped out between her sobs.

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way, Penny,” the boy—Peter?—tried to convince his sister. “I just meant that he’s special.” He seemed so earnest in his explanation that Penny’s sobs slowed down until they were just sniffles.

“Really?”

“Really! He’s the best kitty in the whole world, and that makes him special!”

Stark turned away from them and looked at Natasha and Clint, a smile on his face that he was trying to hide from the kids, who were taking this conversation very seriously.

“So are we all good here?” Stark peered back down at the twins, who nodded. “Great. Now I have to leave for a little bit—I have to go do some Iron Man stuff, but Natasha and Clint are going to stay here with you.”

The kids noticed Natasha and Clint for the first time, raising their heads to look at them, and while Penny’s expression was blank, Peter’s lit up.

“Daddy, that’s Hawkeye and the Black Widow!” Peter grinned, pointing at them.

“It sure is, kiddo,” Stark chuckled. “Now, be good for them, okay?”

Stark set Penny down onto her feet, and with one last kiss on each of their heads he rushed away—they didn’t have much time until the alien dinosaurs made it to earth.

Unfortunately, that left Natasha and Clint with a couple of kids. Natasha shuffled her feet, feeling awkward for one of the few times in her life. Clint was better than her with kids by far, because he had two and was trying for another one with Laura, so he approached them first, leaving her still standing by the door.

“Mr. Hawkeye, it’s so cool to meet you, sir!” Peter’s grin was almost too big for his face.

“It’s good to meet you too, squirt,” Clint laughed, sitting down on the couch next to them. “And call me Clint, okay?”

“How do you shoot your arrows, Mr. Clint?” Penny asked, twisting both of her hand behind her back, looking nervously at him.

“It takes a lot of practice,” Clint said, sitting back against the couch a little. “Maybe one day I can teach you guys.”

“That would be so cool!” Peter cried joyfully.

“I’d like that,” Penny said.

“So, what do you guys do for fun?” Clint asked them, clapping his hands together.

“Uh, we watch TV, movies… oh! Do you wanna play Avengers?” Peter started jumping up and down. Natasha could predict that Clint was about to ask something along the lines of  _what’s that?_ But Peter was gone before he could ask, racing down the hallway to get whatever he wanted to play.

They turned out to be Avengers action figures. Natasha actually rolled her eyes when she saw them, because of course toy companies would profit off of their willingness to put their lives on the line for the entire world just to make a couple of bucks.

“You’re gonna be Hawkeye, obviously,” Peter said, giving Clint the Hawkeye toy. He picked up the Black Widow doll, but he must have realized that Natasha was not in the mood to play stupid games with them because he simply set the doll onto the floor beside the coffee table. “I’m gonna be Captain America—Penny, you be Thor.”

They played for a while, to the point where Clint started to get into it. Natasha wondered if he only complained about babysitting to keep up his reputation because he seemed to really enjoy the job. Honestly, there was really no reason for her to be there—Clint had this covered.

Natasha had moved over to an armchair, streaming the news of the alien attack on her Stark phone. They seemed to be winning, which was a relief, and Natasha noticed that at some point War Machine must have joined them. She only looked away when she saw Penny approach her.

“Ms. Black Widow? I just want you to know that I think you’re really cool,” the girl said shyly, looking down at her palms.

“Thanks,” Natasha said, turning her attention back to the phone.

“I wanna be like you when I grow up,” Penny continued. Natasha frowned a little, looking back at the girl.

“I don’t think you do, kid,” Natasha said honestly.

“Well _I_ do,” Penny said. “I think you’re so cool.”

This was the first time she’d ever heard a kid say that directly to her. Sure, she’d heard it while passing by and while she was watching the news, but never like this.

Natasha wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Penny turned away, going back to playing with Clint and Peter, and the woman noticed for the first time how much the kids looked like Stark—from the eyes to the structures of their faces.

These weren’t any ordinary kids, Natasha realized, just like Luke the cat wasn’t an average cat. They were Stark’s kids, so of course, they would grow up to be unique, to do something so out of the ordinary. She just couldn’t tell what that would be yet.

All she knew is that she wouldn’t mind being a part of it.

With a sigh, Natasha set the phone to the side and picked up the Black Widow Doll. The kids and Clint all looked surprised to see her join the game, and she had to admit that she was surprised too. But she shrugged, and they all went with it. 

They were only playing for twenty minutes before Natasha saw something on her phone through the corner of her eye. She turned her attention to it, before realizing that something was wrong, very wrong.

Iron Man had been hit, and he wasn’t getting back up.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Suddenly she realized that if Daddy was about to go to sleep forever, she didn’t want him to sleep thinking that she didn’t love him, that she didn’t care enough to even say hello to him. So she looked up from Uncle Rhodey’s shirt, twisting her head to look at her father."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap you guys are so nice!!!! Seriously, I've probably said it before and I'll say it again, I love all of you so damn much and it means so much to see y'all enjoying this. This is the farthest I've ever gotten with a chaptered fic and it's all due to your guys' support. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much!
> 
> Alright, enough of that. On with the show!

Dark shadows were starting to fall around Penny as she sat in one of the many chairs in the medical wing waiting room, surrounding her as the sun set behind the trees. She was sitting on the edge of her chair, kicking her legs back and forth as she stared at the ground. She was alone in the huge room, but she found that today she wasn’t afraid of the monsters that lurked in the darkness—no, she had more pressing matters at the moment.

  
She wasn’t completely alone, however; Peter was curled up in the chair next to her, fast asleep. Penny didn’t understand how he could sleep in a time like this, when there was the looming threat of everything they’d started to hold dear being ripped away from them in a blink of an eye, but she supposed that maybe Peter had the right idea—sleeping was probably helping him escape from those same threats that were consuming her own mind.

  
They hadn’t been alone for long. Up until now, Mr. Clint had been sitting with them, attempting to keep them occupied but pretty much failing. It had been quite a lot of time since Ms. Natasha had pulled Mr. Clint aside, whispering seriously about something while showing him what she was watching on her phone. Penny had only been able to catch words like “hurt” and “pretty bad” and “unconscious”. Then, Ms. Natasha had left their floor, stepping into the elevators and disappearing. They hadn’t seen her since.

  
Mr. Clint had stayed with them, at first continuing to play with them, but when he got a phone call he had sighed and nodded his head, making various noises of confirmation. Then he had set the phone down, his face twisted as he tried to find the words he needed to explain what was going on.

  
“Peter, Penny… your dad was really hurt today,” Mr. Clint finally said. “They’re bringing him to the medical wing, and the doctors are gonna fix him up, but you should probably know that he’s not going to be around tonight.” He’d taken them with him to the medical wing while he did his best to deal with some people he called SHIELD, letting them know what happened to the best of his ability. But just now he was stepping outside, leaving the twins alone in the quiet empty room.

  
It reminded her of the day her mommy had died. She had sat in a waiting room just like this with the Watson’s and Luke, counting down the seconds until she would be able to go home with her mommy and things would go back to normal.

  
But that hadn’t happened.

  
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the memory.

  
“Are they in there?” a familiar voice said from outside the room, and it was so faint that Penny almost didn’t catch it. Someone responded, but she couldn’t make out what they said.  
The door to the waiting room opened, and Penny glanced up to see Uncle Rhodey enter. He had a dark bruise around his eye, and a cut on his cheek that was now cleaned up, but other than that he seemed alright. Still, it scared her because if this is how Uncle Rhodey looked, how would her daddy look?

  
In the chair next to her, Peter stirred, opening his unfocused, bleary eyes and looking up at Uncle Rhodey.

  
“Good morning, Uncle Rhodey,” Peter greeted him with a yawn. Uncle Rhodey chuckled, pulling up a chair so he was sitting facing them.

  
“It’s not morning yet, buddy,” Uncle Rhodey corrected him. “Actually, it’s really late.”

  
“Is Daddy okay?” Penny whispered, looking at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

  
“He’s going to be just fine, you guys. Your dad is one tough man—he’s certainly been through a lot worse,” Uncle Rhodey assured him, but it sounded way too good to be true for Penny. “He actually just woke up. Do you wanna go see him?”

  
“Yeah,” Peter nodded, sliding off the chair he’d been sitting on. Uncle Rhodey looked at her, but she just shook her eyes, refusing to make eye contact with him. She didn’t want to see him, because she didn’t want to say goodbye to him like she had to say goodbye to Mommy.

  
“Penny… he’s okay, he’s just a little beat up,” Uncle Rhodey tried to reason. But Penny didn’t want to listen, didn’t want to acknowledge the words that could very well be false. “Please? Here, I’ll hold your hand and we can go together.”

  
He stuck out his hand, but Penny all but threw herself at him, wrapping her small arms around his neck and burying her face in his chest. Uncle Rhodey went with it, standing up and carrying her down the hall where faint beeping could be heard, getting louder and louder until they entered another dark room.

  
“Tones, you have a couple of visitors,” Penny heard Uncle Rhodey say. She didn’t look up from his chest, clutching a piece of his shirt in her fist.

  
“Oh, wow…” Daddy’s voice sounded rough and sleepy. “Hey—hey, you guys…”

  
Penny didn’t want to look. But suddenly she realized that if Daddy was about to go to sleep forever, she didn’t want him to sleep thinking that she didn’t love him, that she didn’t care enough to even say hello to him. So she looked up from Uncle Rhodey’s shirt, twisting her head to look at her father. His entire face was dark and beat up, and his eyelids were half closed. He had bruises everywhere, and traces of dried blood on his lip and forehead. A small whimper forced its way out of her mouth, and when she looked at Peter she realized her brother was now hiding behind Uncle Rhodey’s leg. It was strange to see Peter so… frightened—usually he was more outgoing.

  
“Daddy, are you okay?” Peter asked, his eyes wide with worry.

  
“Yeah, buddy, I’m fine…” Daddy seemed to wake up a little more at Peter’s question. “I just got a little roughed up when I was out as Iron Man, that’s all.”

  
Peter nodded but didn’t say anything, just looking down at his shoes and kicking the smooth white tile.

  
“C’mere, Pete,” Daddy beckoned. Peter hesitated, but when Uncle Rhodey nudged him closer to the bed he climbed up onto it, sitting right next to his father. Peter just stared at his daddy’s face, his hands hovering over the stitched up cut on his forehead. “I’m okay, I just hit my head a little too hard out there.”

  
“Are you gonna die?” Peter blurted out, his face completely serious. Daddy frowned.

  
“No chance of that happening, buddy,” Daddy assured him, lifting a hand to touch Peter’s face. “Your old man is gonna be around for a long time, I can promise you that much.”

  
After a minute of thinking, Peter got closer to him, gently snuggling up into his side.

  
“Did Captain America save you, Daddy?” Peter asked, resting his head against Daddy’s good arm.

  
“Nah, Capsicle was too far away from where I was,” Daddy chuckled, shaking his head slowly. “It was Thor who saved my a—uh, butt.”

  
“Cool! I wish I could meet Thor…” Peter’s face lit up as he had an idea. “I could be his sidekick. Does Thor have a sidekick, Daddy?”

  
“No, I don’t believe he does, kid, but when you’re bigger you should pitch the idea to him,” Daddy said. His eyes shifted up to meet Penny’s, who was still in Uncle Rhodey’s arms. “Hey, honey, why don’t we give Uncle Rhodey a break, huh? C’mere and sit with us.”

  
Penny just shook her head, and before she buried her face back into Uncle Rhodey’s chest, she caught a glimpse of her hurt flashing across her father’s face. She felt guilty—she didn’t want to be the reason he was sad, but she also didn’t want to face the reality that her father was very hurt in a hospital bed, connected to machines and wires.

  
“I think she’s a bit nervous, Tony,” Uncle Rhodey said for her, and Penny was glad that he understood. “I don’t mind holding onto her.”

  
Penny felt Uncle Rhodey sit down in the chair next to Daddy’s bed. For the next twenty minutes she listened as Peter described their day with Hawkeye and the Black Widow, (“Mr. Hawkeye is gonna show us how to shoot a bow and arrow, Daddy!” “Of course he is… that’s Barton’s way of paying me back for what I did to him last month”) and the words started to get jumbled up as she started to drift off to sleep. Peter’s voice eventually fell away, and Daddy and Uncle Rhodey were having a quiet conversation as Penny finally sunk into a deep sleep.

* * *

 

“Has anyone told Pepper?” Tony asked his friend, making sure to keep his voice down as to not wake the twins.

  
“She saw it on the news.” _Shit_. Tony knew that did not bode well for him.

  
“Have you talked to her at all since then?”

  
“Just once right after the fight ended,” Rhodey sighed. “She’s not happy, Tones, but luckily for you, she has to stay in California until tomorrow. If I were you, I’d prepare a speech.”

  
“Yeah, uh, ‘preparing speeches’ isn’t really my thing, Honey Bear, you know that. But I’m sure I’ll come up with something really smooth on the spot. Now _that’s_ my thing.”

  
If Rhodey was going to respond to that, they’d never know, because his phone started to ring.

  
“I have to take this,” Rhodey said, standing up, Penny still in his arms.

  
“I’ll take her,” Tony offered, but it was more than a polite gesture. It certainly wasn’t a good feeling when your child to rejects your request to be with you. Penny was lowered onto the bed on the other side of Tony, opposite of Peter, and into the crook of his arm. Tony held his breath, nervous that she would wake up, and when she didn’t he let it out in relief. Footsteps left the room, Rhodey’s voice faint outside the Medical bay door, and then soft beeps were the only noise in the room beside Penny and Peter’s even breathing.

  
A few minutes passed in silence, leaving him to close his eyes—the pain medication he was on was starting to take over him. Although it wasn’t ideal circumstances, he found himself enjoying the moment. If you had asked him six months ago if he ever wanted a family he would have laughed in your face, but here he was—he was the father of two beautiful kiddos, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

  
Penny shifted in his arm a little bit and bringing Tony out of his thoughts, lifting his eyelids to look down at her. Her big brown eyes were sleepily gazing at him, no longer full of the fear and panic that he had caught on his daughter’s face earlier. Instead, she seemed blissfully calm, and Tony found himself wanting to believe that maybe she had just been tired—sleep deprived. But deep down he knew better, knew that seeing him in a hospital bed would be a rough sight for her so soon after her mother dying.

  
(It was probably an awful thought to have, but Tony wondered if that meant she saw him as more than a friend or a guardian. It was probably even more awful that his heart swelled with happiness at the thought.)

  
“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay, Daddy?” she whispered, hope seeping into her expression.

  
“Yeah, Pen,” Tony replied. Penny smiled and Tony couldn’t help but notice how much she looked like her mother. “It’s gonna take a lot more than a bump on the head to take me out—I _am_ Iron Man, remember?”

  
“I’m glad,” Penny said. Then she closed her eyes again, cuddling closer into his side.

  
Rhodey came back into the room after a few minutes, stopping at the door to look at the scene in front of him.

  
“As unbelievably cute as this is, I think I’m gonna have to put them in their own beds,” Rhodey said, his tone apologetic. Tony opened his mouth to protest, but Rhodey continued to speak. “There’s no way that can be comfortable for you, Tony, and besides, they need good sleep or else they’ll be cranky tomorrow—and _I’m_ the one on babysitting duty while you’re high on all of your Morphine, Sleeping Beauty.”

  
“Fair enough,” Tony relented with a sigh. Rhodey went over and picked Penny up first, holding her with one arm as her head rested on his shoulder. He went to the other side and lifted Peter, who was incoherently mumbling something about Captain America that Tony couldn’t make out, into his other arm, positioning him the same way as his sister was. “You look like you have your hands full, Honey Bear—maybe they should just stay here?”

  
“I’ve got em,” Rhodey shook his head, although he did look like he was struggling to keep each twin upright in his arms. “Get some rest—you look like shit, dude.”

  
Tony rolled his eyes at Rhodey’s last comment but didn’t argue, knowing that ultimately his friend was right about this one. Rhodey turned away and walked out of the room, a twin slung over each shoulder, and as he walked Peter opened his eyes, yawning and rubbing an eye sleepily.

  
“Nigh’ nigh’, Daddy,” Peter slurred, taking the hand that had been rubbing his eye and using it to wave goodbye. “Love you.”

  
“G’night, buddy,” Tony called after him, his heart beginning to race because did Peter just use the ‘L’ word? He did, didn’t he? That word was hard to come by in Tony’s vocabulary, probably because it was a word that carried so much weight—a word that held so much power.

  
Howard Stark hadn’t been one to throw that word around. In fact, Tony was pretty sure that he’d never heard the word come from his father’s lips, not even to his mother. Not even to him. He briefly wondered what kind of person he’d be today had his father said that word to him even once.

  
Maybe it was just a difficult word to say. Tony would know—he didn’t say it that often either. So far, Pepper and Maria Stark were the only two people in the world he’d ever said it to. Those were the only two people in the world Tony had ever felt comfortable saying such a scary word to.

  
But when he looked at his son, with his tousled brown hair and deep brown eyes, Tony couldn’t help but see himself as a young boy, and a small part of him wondered how the hell Howard was able to go 21 years without saying the ‘L’ word even once.

  
“I love you too.”

  
Perhaps it was the loads of drugs he was on, but Tony found that the words came out easily—naturally, even. That’s when he decided that for the rest of his damn life he’d take every opportunity to say those word to his children.

  
Because Tony Stark was _nothing_ like his father.

* * *

Twenty-four hours later, Tony was discharged from the medical wing.

  
The doctors had tried to convince him to remain on bed rest for at least another day, but at the end of the day they knew that arguing with Tony was about as effective as arguing with a brick wall—so they let it go with a collection of sighs, shaking their heads as Tony all but bolted away from the floor he’d been on for the last day and a half.

  
“Sir, Doctor Banner arrived an hour and fourteen minutes ago,” JARVIS informed him as he stepped into the elevator. “He is currently in Laboratory B.”

  
“Perfect timing,” Tony said cheerfully. “I guess that’s where I’m going then.”

  
“Of course, sir.”

  
Bruce was already hard at work when Tony made it down to Lab B, the private lab that was dedicated to the work that he and Bruce did together. Bruce raised his eyebrows when he entered, leaning back against a counter that had countless papers and folders spread across it.

  
“I heard you took quite the tumble the other day,” Bruce said. There might’ve been a trace of concern on the doctor’s face, but the fact that Tony was walking on his two feet must have said something because it was largely overpowered by a humored expression.

  
“I sure did, but I never stay down for long.”

  
“Don’t we all know it,” Bruce rolled his eyes, a chuckle escaping him. “I saw Pepper earlier—she looked upset. Is it about you getting hurt?”

  
Tony frowned at that. He hadn’t seen Pepper since she’d left for California earlier in the week, but usually, when she came back she at least stopped by to say hello.

  
“Actually, I haven’t,” Tony answered, twiddling with some tools that were laying on a workbench beside him. “I guess that means I’m in trouble?”

  
“I wouldn’t ask me,” Bruce said, sitting down on a stool. “But you should probably find her and make sure you’re not. In trouble, I mean.”

  
“Yeah, probably,” Tony sighed, gently tossing a wrench back onto the workbench. “JARVIS, where’s Pep?”

  
“Miss. Potts is currently located in your shared bedroom, Sir.”

  
“Alright. Hey, why don’t you come and meet my kids while I’m sorting things out with her, Bruce? I’m a sucker for free babysitting labor.”

  
“ _What?_ ” Bruce’s jaw dropped, and Tony remembered that the doctor hadn’t been present when he had explained the situation to the rest of the team.

  
“Yeah, I have a son and daughter, they’re five-year-old twins. They’re super nice, you’ll love ‘em. C’mon, you can grill me with all of your questions when we’re riding the elevator up to the floor where I’m probably about to get my ass kicked by Pepper Potts,” Tony lead Bruce to the elevator, who was making shocked noises in the back of his throat.

  
However, the whole elevator ride up Bruce didn’t say a word, and Tony was starting to worry that the Other Guy was on the verge of making an appearance.

  
They made it to Tony’s personal floor, and he found Peter and Penny in the living room watching a colorful TV show (he was pretty sure it was the Little Einsteins; he was becoming much more familiar with preschool television programs).

  
“Hi, Daddy!” Peter grinned, looking up from the television. Penny turned her head at her brother’s words, but instead of looking at Tony, her eyes focused behind her.  
Right, Bruce was behind him, still shell-shocked.

  
“Hey Pete, hey Pen,” Tony went over and ruffled Peter’s hair, making the boy squeal in delight. “Bruce, this is Peter, and that’s Penny over there. Guys, this is Doctor Bruce Banner. He’s one of my superhero friends.”

  
“Superhero?” Peter frowned.

  
“Yeah, he’s the big green guy—it’s an excellent party trick, he’ll have to show you sometime.”

  
“Absolutely not,” Bruce was able to come out of his stupor enough to shut the idea down. “That’s way too dangerous.”

  
“You’re the Hulk?” Peter jumped up onto his feet, his eyes widening as he realized that he was in the presence of another real-life superhero. “That’s so cool!”

  
“Define cool,” Bruce sighed, shaking his head.

  
“Okay, I have to go talk to Pepper for a sec—Brucie, can you watch them? Thanks,” Tony didn’t stick around for the doctor to protest, knowing that the man wasn’t exactly comfortable around children, but he couldn’t help but feel that there was a possibility of him warming up to Peter and Penny—after all, it wasn’t like they were ordinary kids.

  
Tony entered Pepper and his shared bedroom and was immediately confused at the large suitcase resting on their bed, almost full of clothes and other items that Pepper owned. It wasn’t the suitcase she usually traveled with—she usually traveled with a smaller sized suitcase. Were they going on a vacation that he’d forgotten about? It was a strong possibility. Shit, he didn’t have anyone set up to watch the twins… hopefully, they were hitting it off with Bruce.

  
Pepper exited the bathroom and his heart sank when he realized she was crying, her eyes red and tear tracks on her cheeks.

  
“Pep, what’s wrong? What are you doing?”

  
Pepper seemed to freeze at his words before slowly setting her toiletry bag into the suitcase. Then, she turned around, her expression unreadable, and Tony had a bad feeling in his gut.

  
“Tony, I… I’m so sorry. I just… I can’t do this anymore. I can’t. I’m leaving. I’m sorry.”

  
And that was the exact moment Tony felt his poorly constructed world start to crumble to the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I'm really not nice to any of them. Oops. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was just so hard to believe that she was gone. The best thing that had ever happened to him had just walked out.
> 
>  
> 
> (A voice in the back of his head reminded him that it wasn’t her, but Peter and Penny who were the best things that had ever happened to him. He ignored that voice because damn it, he just wanted to drown in the sadness and the loneliness.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since the last update! 
> 
> Warnings: Child neglect, alcoholism. As always, be cautious when reading :)

Tony sat on the edge of the bed, eyes staring straight ahead at the wall as Pepper stood in the middle of the bedroom, her red-rimmed gaze on him. Why hadn't she left yet? Why was she dragging this out?

  
“Tony…” Pepper whispered, sounding helpless, but she wasn’t the helpless one in this situation, was she? “Say something. Please.”

  
“Why?” Tony lifted his head up slightly so that he was finally looking her in the eyes. His voice was small, and he hated how she made him so dependent on her.

  
He never should have let her in.

  
“You know why, Tony,” Pepper reminded him gently. Tony just shook his head, unable to accept that as an answer. Yes, he knew exactly the reason why she was leaving, but he wanted to hear her say the words. It would feel more real that way.

  
Pepper sighed, moving to close her suitcase up from where it sat on their bed. Although it wasn’t their bed anymore. Tony tried not to think about that any more than he had to.

  
“I just need a break,” Pepper sat down next to him. “I know that Iron Man is a big part of who you are, and I admire that so much. Truly, I do, and I could _not_ be any more proud of you.” She fell silent, and Tony spared a glance at her and realized just how tired Pepper looked.

  
“But…” Tony prompted her, tearing his eyes away and looking back at the wall.

  
“But… Tony, every time I’m told that you’re out there, risking your life fighting against monsters, aliens, gods, whatever… my heart stops. Every damn time,” Pepper lifted her hand to wipe away a single tear that was falling down her cheek. “Because I’m never sure when you might not come back.”

  
Tony was well aware of the pressure he’d placed on his girlfriend, from being CEO of Stark Industries and him being Iron Man, to the implied responsibility of the twins—he’d never asked her to do anything more in that last area than she wanted to, but she’d started to take on a mother figure-like role for Peter and Penny, like making dinner for them when she could and reading them to sleep when Tony found himself busy with Avenger’s business. It wasn’t easy being Pepper Potts, and Tony knew that, but he couldn’t help but wish that she’d try and push through for a little bit longer.

  
Maybe that was too much for him to ask of her. Apparently, she thought so.

  
“I just need to be on my own for a little bit,” Pepper stood up while she spoke, tugging on the suitcase so it was standing upright on the ground. “I’ve got an apartment close to the tower.”

  
“I need you, Pep,” Tony said, desperation starting to claw its way into his throat. “I can’t do this without you.”

  
“I’ll always be your friend, Tony,” Pepper said gently, gripping the handle of her suitcase with both hands to tight that her knuckles were turning white. Tony vaguely remembered buying said suitcase for her a couple of years ago—it was Louis Vuitton, one of the most expensive brands in the world. To him, that kind of money was nothing, it wouldn’t even get close to breaking the bank, but it had meant the world to Pepper, and for a moment he allowed himself to picture her smile when he had given it to her in his mind. Then, he chased it away, knowing that remembering such happy times would only make the bad times worse. “I just need some space.”

  
With that, she left the room, wheeling her suitcase behind her. Suddenly, the room seemed so empty, so lifeless without her in it. Tony lowered his face into his hands, unwilling to deal with the reality that was his Pepper-less life.

* * *

 

Peter stood in the living room, his Hulk action figure in his hands. He held it up in front of his face, lifting and lowering it in order to compare it to Dr. Bruce Banner, who was cooperatively sitting still, much to Peter’s delight.

  
“Are you super, super, duper sure _you’re_ the _Hulk_?” Peter asked the Doctor for the umpteenth time since his Daddy had disappeared into his and Miss. Pepper’s room. Dr. Bruce sighed, looking more and more broken every time Peter questioned his identity.

  
“Yes, I am super, super, _duper_ sure that I am the Hulk,” Dr. Bruce answered. “Or at least, I become the Hulk when I get angry.”

  
“Prove it,” Penny said from where she was standing next to Peter, crossing her arms.

  
“I’ve already told you guys, I _can’t_ prove it!” Dr. Bruce said, his voice exasperated. “I mean, I technically could, but it would be highly unsafe.”

  
Peter turned to his sister, looking for her opinion on this very important matter they had at hand. Penny just simply shrugged, as if to say _we can’t know until he proves it_ , and Peter knew that their investigation might need to be halted for the time being. Peter pivoted back to Dr. Bruce, sighing before lowering the Hulk doll.

  
“We’ll believe you, _for now_ ,” Peter told the doctor, and Dr. Bruce seemed to deflate with relief, glad that the kids had been able to decide on a well-informed verdict.

  
Peter went back to his action figures, standing them all up in a row on the coffee table. Penny grabs her pink sparkly hairbrush and some hair ties, approaching him with a smile on her face.

  
“Dr. Bruce? Can you do my hair? Daddy wasn’t here this morning to do it for me,” Penny requested, but she didn’t give the man much of a choice, shoving the tools into his hands and climbing up onto his lap.

  
“Oh, I’m not very good—I don’t think I can—” Dr. Bruce stumbled over his words.

  
“Just put it in braids,” Peter said, looking up at his action figures. “Daddy wasn’t very good at doing Penny’s hair at first, but he looked it up on YouTube and figured it out.”

  
“Please, Dr. Bruce?” Penny twisted to look at Dr. Bruce, her eyes big and hopeful, and Dr. Bruce sighed.

  
“I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises. Let me look up a video on how to do it, okay?” Dr. Bruce said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and unlocking it. “Oh, and just call me Bruce, alright?”

  
Penny turned back around so that she was facing Peter from Bruce’s lap, a triumphant smile on her face. Peter shook his head fondly—if there was anyone who could persuade a grown-up to do something by acting, it was his sister. Daddy was wrapped around her finger, and so was their Uncle Ben. Aunt May was able to see through the act most of the time, but there were times when even May couldn’t resist.

  
“Okay, Bruce,” Penny agreed, patiently waiting for Bruce. Half an hour later, four broken hair ties and three separate YouTube videos, Bruce was just finishing up Penny’s hair, working on the last braid. Peter noticed that one braid was higher than the other, and there were stray pieces falling out here and there, but that was how it had looked when Daddy had first started doing Penny’s hair too.

  
Bruce was just about to tie off the last braid when Uncle Rhodey stepped into the room, scanning around to see who was around and stopping when his gaze fell on Bruce and Penny on the couch.

  
“Oh, my,” Uncle Rhodey said, covering his hand with his mouth, and Peter suspected that the Colonel was trying to hide a smile. He came around the couch to get a full view of what was happening. “Bruce, what did she rope you into?”

  
“I’m doing her hair,” Bruce said, looking up from the tutorial he was currently watching. “Rhodes, I have 7 PhDs, including Nuclear Physics, but I have never had to do something as hard as this before. It’s almost impossible!”

  
“Well, you did a decent job,” Uncle Rhodey praised the doctor, dropping his hand back to his side. “Now there’s nothing you can’t do.”

  
“I don’t know about that, Rhodes, but I’m getting there.”

  
“Uncle Rhodey, is it true that Bruce is the Hulk?” Peter interjected himself into the conversation because really, this is very important and Peter had to know as soon as possible.

  
“Of course he is, kiddo,” Uncle Rhodey answered, leaning over to ruffle Peter’s hair. “Did you think he was lying or something?”

  
Peter glanced at Bruce, who seemed a lot happier all of a sudden.

  
“It’s just hard to believe.”

  
“Alright Penny, I’m finished,” Bruce said, and Penny slid off the man’s lap. “Go look in the mirror and see if I need to try again or not.”

  
“Okie dokie!” Penny complied, racing off to the bathroom to look in the mirror. Uncle Rhodey sat next to Bruce, glancing at the door to Daddy’s bedroom.

  
“Not that you’re not doing a great job, but why exactly does Tony have you babysitting?”

  
“He and Pepper are talking about something,” Bruce answered, taking his glasses off of his face and twirling them around in his hand. “I don’t know what exactly, but I _do_ know that if I find out they’re doing the nasty while I’m watching their kids right outside their door, I might just be able to prove to Peter that I’m the Hulk.”

 

Uncle Rhodey chuckled, leaning back against the couch and crossing his arms across his chest. 

 

“That’s something Tony would do, for sure, but Pepper wouldn’t let that happen. Also, you are aware that Peter and Penny aren’t Pepper’s kids, right?”

 

“Oh… no, I wasn’t aware of that. I just thought they had pulled a Barton and kept them a secret all these years,” Bruce admitted. Penny came running back from the bathroom, a huge grin on her face—Peter loved seeing her smile. It was such a rare thing to see these days. 

 

“Oh, Bruce, I love it so much!” Penny climbed up onto the couch in between Uncle Rhodey and Bruce, throwing her arms out and giving Bruce a big hut. “Thank you, thank you, _thank you_!”

  
“You’re welcome, honey,” Bruce laughed, startled for a moment at the touch before hugging Penny back. “Next time, I’ll try to at least make them even on both sides.”

  
Uncle Rhodey was about to say something when the door to Daddy and Miss. Pepper’s room opened, and Miss. Pepper came out wheeling a suitcase behind her. Her eyes were red, and Peter was pretty sure she’d been crying. Uncle Rhodey stood up, concern written on his face.

  
“Pepper, are you okay?”

  
Miss. Pepper ignored the question, instead opting to walk straight past them. She only stopped to look down at Peter, who was staring up at her confusedly.

  
“Peter, Penny, I’m going to be away for a little while,” she all but whispered, kneeling down to face him and Penny, who had gravitated off of Bruce’s lap and was now standing beside him. “But if you ever need anything at all, call me, okay?” She pressed a piece of paper into Peter’s hand, giving them each one last kiss on the temple before standing up and walking out of the room.

  
Out of their lives.

  
It was just one more person who had left them, who had opted out of their lives. Probably not on purpose, no, it was almost never on purpose. But it still happened, and Peter wanted to cry out for her, to demand she come back and stay with him forever, but he couldn’t make words come out of his mouth.

  
It seemed like Uncle Rhodey was in the same boat.

  
“Pepper…” Uncle Rhodey managed to call out, but it was too late. She was already gone. He turned back to Bruce, glancing up at the now open door. “Bruce… do you mind looking after them for a little longer? I need to make sure he’s okay.”

  
“Yeah, for sure,” Bruce nodded. Uncle Rhodey gave a quick “thanks” before disappearing into the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

  
Bruce tried to distract them by putting on the TV, and while Paw Patrol did take part of Peter’s mind off Miss. Pepper’s absence, but not by much.

  
Uncle Rhodey came back out of Daddy’s room about two hours later, right after Bruce had made them Mac and Cheese. Uncle Rhodey put Peter and Penny to bed, reading the same bedtime story that Daddy would have read—it was the third night in a row where Daddy hadn’t put them to bed. Peter felt his sister’s disappointment as Uncle Rhodey struggled through the book, word by word, page by page until he finished and turned the lights off, leaving them to drift off alone.

  
It was funny: Peter knew that he was surrounded by so many people that would help him if he needed it, but he couldn’t help but feel so alone.

* * *

 

Tony hadn’t meant to go down the same road he’d previously struggled so hard to get off of, but here he was. Pepper leaving had rattled his world so deeply, and if he was being honest, he simply didn’t see a way he could survive without her. Rhodey tried to help steer him back into the land of the living, but it just wasn’t happening. Not anytime soon.

  
It started with one drink.

  
After Rhodey had comforted him for hours after Pepper had left, and it was dark outside by the time he left, saying something about finally relieving Bruce of his duties. What duties, Tony couldn’t remember, but he didn’t have the energy to ask. He was now sitting alone in his dark and empty bedroom, a half-empty bottle of Tequila in his hands. One drink, he told himself as he drank to distract himself from the hole in his heart.

  
It was just so hard to believe that she was gone. The best thing that had ever happened to him had just walked out.

  
(A voice in the back of his head reminded him that it wasn’t her, but Peter and Penny who were the best things that had ever happened to him. He ignored that voice because damn it, he just wanted to drown in the sadness and the loneliness.)

  
He hadn’t meant to grab another drink or the one after that, but one of the downsides of being a billionaire was the endless amount of bottles of alcohol available to him at the moment. So Tony shamelessly drank everything away until he blacked out, waking up on the floor of his bedroom before waking up the next day with a raging headache.

  
Tony only left the room in the morning to go get the Advil that he kept in the kitchen. As he shuffled through the living room, he only partly registered the sound of the TV and the stares he was getting as he disappeared into the kitchen.

  
“Morning, Daddy,” one of the kids greeted him, and for a second he couldn’t figure out which one. Peter, the voice in his head reminded him, and he glanced over to see his son watching him with so much intensity.

  
“Morning, kiddo,” Tony answered flatly. “Can you two make breakfast by yourselves this morning? Daddy’s not feeling too good.”

  
“Yeah…” Peter said, and Tony doesn’t stick around for the kid to ask any more questions. He knew he should feel bad about that because Peter didn’t do anything wrong, but he doesn’t because Peter doesn’t know what it feels like to have your heart broken into pieces.

  
Then, Tony wanted to kick himself because Peter and Penny both had lost too much at too young of an age.

  
He disappeared into his room, not coming back out until late at night when someone had already put the twins to bed—and that was just to grab alcohol from the kitchen.

  
This carried on for a week, and at that point, Tony had gravitated from his room to his private lab, where he buried himself into upgrading his Iron Man suits, usually with a bottle of alcohol sat next to him, readily available. Rhodey tried to help him, tried to get him out of his downward spiral, but in the end, no one can help him but himself.

  
And Tony had no intentions of helping himself anytime soon.

* * *

 

Penny had hardly seen her father in a week, and the few times she had seen him, he was unshaven and disheveled.

  
“Your Dad is just… sad, right now,” Uncle Rhodey had explained to her when she had brought it up over dinner one night. It was just the three of them at the dinner table—Daddy and Miss. Pepper’s chairs were both empty and hadn’t been touched in several days. “He really misses Pepper.”

  
“I miss her too,” Peter said, shoving his green beans around on his plate with his fork. Penny couldn’t tell if the sadness she was feeling was his or her own. It was probably both.  
“Me too,” Uncle Rhodey sighed, and Penny realized that he looked tired and worn down.

  
Why was everything falling apart?

 

“Your Dad hasn’t had an easy life,” Aunt May had said when Penny and Peter had spent the night at their Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s apartment in Queens the night before. “Imagine how it must feel to be him. He has people surrounding him just because he’s a famous billionaire. It’s probably really hard for him to find real friends, don’t you think?”

  
Penny wondered if she was a real friend of her Daddy’s. If not, she wanted to be.

  
That night, Penny woke up from a nightmare, gasping for breath as she began to shake. Although Peter was in the bed next to her, sound asleep, Penny couldn’t help but feel afraid of the monster that was surely waiting to grab her and drag her into its dark abyss.

  
Penny slid out of her bed, the new stuffed bear that Uncle Ben had bought her the other day hugged tightly in her arms, making her way to her Daddy’s room. She made it there, only to see the bed empty, the sheets tangled and falling off the edge.

  
“Jarvis? Where is my Daddy?”

  
“Miss. Penny, your father is currently down in his private lab,” Jarvis answered. “Would you like me to take you there?”

  
“Yes, please,” Penny’s voice was soft and shaky. The elevator dinged, and Penny stepped in, riding down until Jarvis stopped and opened the doors back up.

  
“Your father’s lab is just down the hallway and to the right,” Jarvis informed her helpfully. Penny followed the AI’s directions until she came to a glass door, Jarvis opening it for her.

  
Her Daddy had his back turned to her, unaware of her presence. He was bent over one of his Iron Man suits, tinkering with the wires, occasionally grabbing the bottle on the table and taking a swig.

  
“Daddy?” Penny whispered, and her Daddy jumped, spinning around quickly, stumbling while doing so.

  
“Jesus, kid, don’t sneak up on me like that,” he scolded her, a handheld to his heart. Once he calmed down, his expression turned from startled to annoyed. “Why are you out of bed? And why are you down _here_ of all places?”

  
“I—I had a nightmare…” Penny stuttered, shrinking under her father’s glare. “You weren’t in your bed like…”

  
“Like what? Like _usual_?” Her Daddy seemed angrier than usual, and Penny couldn’t figure out what she had done to make her that way. “Penny, we all have nightmares, but that doesn’t mean we go crying to our parents every time we have a bad dream.”

  
“I—I’m sorry, I just—” Penny felt the tears start to rise in the throat, and her eyes were starting to sting.

  
“Seriously, when are you going to grow up?”

  
Penny stood there in silence, not wanting to open her mouth partly because she knew that if she did, the tears would break and she’d be blubbering like a baby, but also because her father seemed furious with her and she didn’t want to make things worse.

  
“Get back into bed,” Daddy ordered, pointing towards the door.

  
“Y-yessir,” Penny managed before darting out of the lab, all but running towards the elevator. She felt the bear fall out of her grip, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care as she got into the elevator, reaching up and blindly pushing one of the buttons. Tears started to fall from her eyes, but she was able to keep most of them in as the elevator doors opened back up. She realized that she was on the ground floor—the outside doors were right in front of her.

  
She wasn’t thinking as she walked across the floor towards the doors and pushed on them, exiting the building into the cold night New York night. By now sobs were escaping her, and she walked down the street across from the tower, distracted by the thought that her Daddy must not love her anymore—it was the only logical explanation for why he’d been so harsh with her. Once she was a block and a half away from the tower, she sat down on the curb, sobs wracking her body as she cried.

  
“Penelope?”

  
The woman’s voice was so beautifully familiar. Penny raised her head to look towards where the voice came from and was startled to see a face that she’d thought she’d never see again.

  
Mary Parker was to the right of her under a streetlight, knelt down so that she was at Penny’s height.

  
Her Mommy’s face held a look of concern and kindness that Penny had yearned for so long.

  
“Mommy,” Penny choked out, her vision blurred from the sudden wave of tears that were coming. She jumped up from the curb and into her mother’s arms, delighting at how real she felt.

  
“Oh, Penelope, what did he do to you?” Mommy whispered, wrapping her arms around her tightly.

  
“He doesn’t love me anymore, Mommy,” Penny said, burying her face into her mother’s shoulder.

  
“Do you want to come home with me?”

  
Did she? Yes, maybe her father didn’t love her anymore, but there were other people she saw on a regular basis who did. Uncle Rhodey, Bruce, Aunt May, Uncle Ben… Peter. How could she leave without Peter?

  
“I can’t leave Peter,” Penny started to pull away, sniffling.

  
“I’ll come back and get him,” Mommy promised, looking down at her and wiping Penny’s tears with her thumb. “Please, darling? I’ve missed you so, so much.”

  
Perhaps it was just because she was upset with her Daddy, but she had the sudden urge to go. Wasn’t this what she’d dreamed of for so long? To be reunited with her mother? What kind of stupid-head would pass that chance up?

  
So she nodded, falling back into her Mommy’s arms, letting the tears fall freely. Then, when they finally started to slow down, Mommy stood up, taking her hand and pulling her in the direction away from Avengers Tower.

  
Maybe, if she had been in a more coherent state of mind, she would have noticed the way Mommy’s grip on her arm was slightly too tight, or the fact that Mommy was calling her “Penelope” instead of “Penny” like she used to. And maybe she would have noticed that as they walked, it started to get darker and darker until Penny was pulled into the abyss by a monster who wouldn’t let her go. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun DUUNNN!
> 
> When will I stop torturing them? Um... 
> 
> On another note, Endgame is scarily close! I have my tickets to see it on the 28th, so this will most likely be my last post until I get the chance to see it. I'm so nervy you guys... 
> 
> Anyways, I hope y'all are enjoying where I'm taking this story. We only have a few more chapters to go, believe it or not.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry I know this is lowkey trash but bear with me lol


End file.
